This was a very, very, very good Tim Lincecum start … because of at-bats by Marco Scutaro and Gregor Blanco.

On a warm day when the wind was blowing out, Scutaro hit his first homer of the year and nearly had another; Blanco hit a ball about 419 feet and ended up with a double. Not to take away from either of those two guys at all, but I think even they would tell you that the ball was flying a bit today.

Enter the Braves. They lead the National League in homers and the ball is carrying and Lincecum has been hit hard this year and …

The Braves had just two hits off of Lincecum, both singles. They barely barreled anything up, hitting a bunch of lazy fly balls to the outfield or pop-ups to the infielders.

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“He was good,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Lincecum. “Really good.”

Lincecum said he would stay grounded after the very, very, very good Tim Lincecum start. Literally. “I’m not jumping up in the air right now,” he said, smiling.

But he added that this is something that he can build on. This was Lincecum in complete control, even if the fastball was mostly coming in at 89-90 and there were still a few wild misses. What was working today?

“Really, everything,” catcher Buster Posey said. “He was able to throw to both sides and throw off-speed pitches out of the zone at the right time and for strikes at the right time.”
As always, you move on to the next one. But for those who wondered if Lincecum was still capable of *this* … well, he is. Those weren’t the Padres or Astros on the other side, and for just the third time in his career Lincecum threw seven shutout innings and allowed fewer than three hits.

That’s the firm of Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner over the past three days. This isn’t rocket science: Those three had huge starts and the Giants went 3-0 while outscoring one of the National League’s best teams 23-4.

Lincecum said the pitchers have talked a bit about getting back in gear.

“It’s one of those things where we kind of kicked each other in the ass,” Lincecum said. “It’s ‘Let’s step it up.’ “

He knows better than to actually exchange any kicks, though. Especially with the big left-hander.

“He would go right through me,” Lincecum said of Bumgarner. “Especially with those boots he always wears.”

— With a pitcher, you have to wait until his next start to see if he can keep the consistency. With Brandon Belt, you just have to wait until Tuesday.

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Belt hit a homer to left-center field that looked like one of the moon shots he was hitting in Scottsdale. The Giants will take the pulled frozen ropes, too, like the one that he hit against the Diamondbacks on the last trip, but this homer today was Belt at his Belt Best.

“Brandon’s strength is left-center to right-center,” Bochy said. “He’s got to remind himself of that. That was a great swing and that’s more like him.”

Bochy and Hensley Meulens have consistently told Belt to simply worry about having good at-bats. “We don’t want him trying to hit the long ball,” Bochy said. “He’s strong enough to hit it out.”

ESPN’s Mark Simon tweeted a graphic the other day (shown here) that shows that Belt hasn’t had much luck on hard-hit balls, as ESPN tracks them. He was 11 for 23 coming into the weekend, and Simon said the average for someone on a run like that would be 16 for 23. You can see how many of the hard-hit balls have gone the other way and died on the track, but today Belt went right over it.

“You want to take pitches on the outer half and hit them hard to left-center,” Belt said. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career. That’s definitely a good sign. When you tense up, you pull off the ball.

“Yeah, spring training is spring training. But what I was doing down there is what I want to do up there (at the plate).”

— Scutaro on his homer: “What’d I hit? A baseball.”

Okay, it was a curveball. Scutaro said he finally feels healthy, thus the streak of six straight multi-hit games and the 12-game hitting streak, the longest in the Majors after Ryan Braun went hitless today. “It makes me able to stay back and wait for the ball,” Scutaro said.

— Blanco said that was the longest double of his life, but he was thinking more. Much more. “Flan was going to send me,” Blanco said, smiling.

Send, as in send home. He was thinking inside-the-park homer and would have had a good shot at it (especially against that Braves defense), but the ball bounced over the fence.

— Scutaro also had a non-traditional double when a fan reached over the wall and interfered with his blast to left. When the umpires came back from the replay room, Scutaro slyly signaled for a home run with his fingers.

“Why not? he said.

It didn’t work.

— Pablo Sandoval loves the cancer awareness part of this day, and today he was decked out in pink cleats and pink wristbands and used a pink bat. Oh, he had pink fingernails, too. Sandoval used Game Signs, a sticker that’s a new product for catchers who want to make it easier for their pitcher to see signs. Hector Sanchez used them while catching. The Game Signs people said they think Sandoval is the first third baseman to wear them in a game.

On a more important note, Sandoval hit a blast to the Cove. It was his seventh splash hit, a number that seems kind of low given his prodigious power. The season is young …

— Man, really positive notes here. Need to pump the brakes a bit, so MY GOD PEOPLE STOP TOUCHING THE BASEBALLS WHEN THE PLAY IS STILL GOING ON.

Alex Pavlovic

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Tim Lincecum could be “Tim Hudson”. You heard it here first. Stash that away for later usage.

===

Gregor Blanco continues to impress. How would he look against lefties??

ClutchUp

EPip@ previous thread. Bartman didn’t intefere more than the other 3-4 sets of hands. However per ESPN’s 30 for 30 they treated Bartman like Crud.

George Kontos played on a youth team coached by Steve Bartman.

Eddie Montague was on Martys show. Didn’t seem like he was a fan of Dawg the Fan.

That act gets really OLD.

ClutchUp

PAVs on KNBR right this second!

stickman

Zito vs Dickey. Betcha the Braves are delighted not to be mixed up with that combination. Wondering what the average pitch speed will be while those two are on the mound. Soft,softer and softest?

ClutchUp

Correction: It was Kontos’s brother who played for Bartman.

e-pip

Re Bartman: someone needs to get the credit, when WE know it was just another Baker omen.

walt kovacs

3 incidents of fan interference during the homestand, all due to one thing…the penalties are not severe enough

balls in play or not, if a fan reaches into the field of play and that includes foul territory, they should be ejected

interfere and you are banned for life…you have lost all your fan privileges

this wasnt the first infraction for “the dawg” who brings an oversized glove and reaches over the cf wall constantly…its just the first where his idiotic behavior interfered with a play

the giants must put their collective feet down now

my other pet peeve….dear csn, while i know that amyg is paid by the giants to promote the team, she cannot conduct a coherent post game interview…so tell the giants that either they find someone else or stop showing them…they are inane, give no real insight into the game and her voice makes my ears bleed and dear god, she cant speak spanish, so why is she interviewing spanish speaking players

but jeeze, it was great to know that belts mom always had his back

ClutchUp

How come Lincecum wasn’t MODERATED for his comment in Alex’s article?

Heh
Heh
Heh

ClutchUp

Alex requested help on what to wear and do in Toronto.

Saddle up pronto.

They leave in 3 hours…

SurfCity

A nice win and a nice series for the Giants. For those of you who thought this series was a test, the Giants passed.

—

Props Warriors!

SurfCity

A nice win and a nice series for the Giants. For those of you who thought this series was a test, the Giants pa$$ed.

—

Props Warriors

SurfCity

Alex, it’s getting pretty lame when you can’t even type “pa$$ed”

allthewayfromfinnertys

That guy in the bleachers apparently tries to do this all the time. He needs to be banned for life.

Bapah

One thing I noticed on several trips to Toronto was that in the hotel lobby and bars of many “classy” hotels is that the hookers looked like young, well dressed, good looking, business types. I mean attractive. So careful, there, AP.

And, as has been said, “You can’t tell Canadian folks from normal white folks until they dress to go outdoors.”

Bapah

One thing I noticed on several trips to Toronto was that in the hotel lobby and bars of many “cla$$y” hotels is that the hookers looked like young, well dressed, good looking, business types. I mean attractive. So careful, there, AP.

And, as has been said, “You can’t tell Canadian folks from normal white folks until they dress to go outdoors.”

GiantDuck

Been to a few Toronto Film Festivals and Bapah is ‘au pointe’ regarding the hotel hookers. You think you’re chatting with a tidy paralegal from an uptown law firm — until you find out there’s a mobile credit card machine stashed in that Luis Vitton briefcase.

Having problems posting. Wasn’t going to post Minor League Report for third time and have it go nowhere. Hence, test.

Frak!

The Canadian hookers, that is

channelclemente

Let’s see what Lincecum can do against a team that can manage the count in an at bat. Atlanta has got to be the most aggressive team with a bat I’ve seen in a while.

Ryan

You are right CC. Matchups are key. Lincecum draws the Rox next, so that should also be in his favor – provided he keeps ball down.

===

Who remembers “Skydome Strawberries” ??

Was that code for lay-over? And did Baggs pick from the Venutian menu or the Martian? Not that it matters, we’re SF Giants fans after all.

Mooooooooooose

CU – One last clarification question on last thread.

Mooooooooooose

Bryce Harper is now 4-35 since April 28 with 6 walks and 10 K’s. Should he take a few days off?
Should he be benched?
Should he be sent down?
Should he be DFA’d?
Or should he stay in the lineup?

Samuel

@Mooooose: hopefully he’s DFA’d. He’d make a good Giant.

Ryan

moooooooooooooooooseschtiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicckkk,

Bryce Harper still has an RC+ of 172. I dunno, what should they do? I guess he’s just regressing to a more reasonable mean.

Ryan

Samuel,
what’s going on with your gravatar?

Looks like Ichiro with a cluster of green grapes and something is trending downhill.

Mooooooooooose

Ok then, one more question. If a Giant – any Giant – were to go 4-35, what would we be saying?

Scutaro never was that low, but he was being compared to Huff.
Pence never was that low, but he had all kinds of horrible things said about him (some still are, despite hitting well over .300 with RISP lately).
Pablo has a bad day and he’s too fat.
Pagan, Blanco, Torres have all been DFA’d by one or more.
Even Buster’s been dissed for his contract.
Don’t even get me started on Belt!!

Ryan

Moose ,

my advice is to recite the Serenity Prayer.

Fans will be fans and you just need the wisdom to accept that they will not change and will continue to fire up the bus to Fresno, propose mock trades, and call certain players fat or gumby shouldered or whatever.

And yes, Pablo is a little too thick for his own good.

South City Jim

Ah, I’m back from LA. Fun ride today heading up I5 changing channels between Dubs and Giants and occasionally searching for better reception for one or the other through the Valley. I didn’t see yesterday’s game or today’s but it sounded like the pitching was exceptional. I hope the G’s didn’t demoralize the Braves too much…heading to AZ would be nice if they could win at least one there. Just checked out the Braves MLB.com blog. Makes this blog look tame. Still in first but folks are ready to throw in the towel. Couple of good posts though. One guy says they been trying to hide Uggla in the LU for three years and now they have to hide Uggla and BJ Upton. LOL 🙂

Anyway, good to see the G’s rotation starting to string together some nice starts. Now, hopefully they can hit a knuckleball.

Mooooooooooose

What fun would that be?

South City Jim

My last comment is in moderation. I’ll try it again without the smiley face.

Ah, I’m back from LA. Fun ride today heading up I5 changing channels between Dubs and Giants and occasionally searching for better reception for one or the other through the Valley. I didn’t see yesterday’s game or today’s but it sounded like the pitching was exceptional. I hope the G’s didn’t demoralize the Braves too much…heading to AZ would be nice if they could win at least one there. Just checked out the Braves MLB.com blog. Makes this blog look tame. Still in first but folks are ready to throw in the towel. Couple of good posts though. One guy says they been trying to hide Uggla in the LU for three years and now they have to hide Uggla and BJ Upton. LOL

Anyway, good to see the G’s rotation starting to string together some nice starts. Now, hopefully they can hit a knuckleball.

South City Jim

Worked. No more smiley faces.

totalfan62

Solid homestand for our boys. Seven of 10, even though we lost two of three to the Phillies, just what the doctor ordered. Next 12 games will test us as well. I’d be OK with 3-3 on this six-game trip, and a 4-2 homestand vs. Nats and Rox. Turning that 7-5 into an 8-4 would be outstanding. Approaching the quarter pole playing at .605 pace, smells like a playoff team!

So glad to see the starting pitchers put together a good turn through the rotation. Even though Vogey struggled, the fact that Bochy is confident enough to let him start again in Toronto bodes well for the short term.

GO GIANTS!!

pacman68

Loved hearing about the pitchers getting together and saying they have to do better. This is an all out team we have here folks. Let’s just enjoy them.

stickman

Current pace puts Giants at somewhere around 96 wins. The probability of that happening was transmogrified from possibility level just today with Timmy reverting to form. Could be an outlier, but as it is a contract year for him and because he’s hardly a dim bulb, he may have essentially recovered his poise ~ and stamina. Of course this was the Braves, so we have to keep that in mind. Do they have a key player or two injured right now or is that it?

This team has the potential to be one of the all-time great Giants squads. If Timmy actually is back and judging from steady performances from Cain and Bumgarner; three-fifths of the rotation goes scary. Zito has grown as a pitcher (and as a hitter) and consequently is likely to win more often than not. Vogie is still the question mark, but with his determination and fire, if it is physically possible he will find a way to at least be a .500 hurler.

Topping Atlanta 6-2 in their own homerun game has got to sting. It also sends the message that not only are the Giants a great slice and dice, Death of a Thousand Cuts outfit, but also can hurt you with pop. If Belt gets into a groove with his power-stroke, he could join Pence, Panda and Posey in the 20+ club.

Over the past 20 years SF has had teams that won 100+ games but which were derailed in the Post-Season. This bunch knows how to do October. This version of the Halloween Machine also has the potential to top 100 wins. Injuries or other bad things could happen, but if the rain quits and the creek doesn’t rise, we could be looking at the most successful Giants team of all time, even compared with those featuring Mathewson and McGinnty on the mound and McGraw running the show.

Sleep good tonight.

ClutchUp

Moose: I checked with three DI umpires and then called Eddie Montague.

They all say its a “had to be there” kind of item but all had an out but added they’ve never seen a good size player not end up on the back side of the base.

Can anybody truthfully state what really happened to the career path of one:

Jemile Weeks ?

I love(d) his game…

ClutchUp

Sorry ‘fffffffff’ – but negative.

Moskovitz and Kozimor tag team.

408svl

one thing i know about pitching is if you have good start it will carry over and over. you just hope this start that we saw will be it for lincecum. he hasn’ t had that many. other than the playoffs of 2010 lincecum never had a good start against the brave.

as i see it, everybody has to contribute. same like last year everybody played for each other. and that is where the rbi’s are. left field is where sabe will be looking for help before it is said and done.

If so, I’ve seen him 3 times so far this year. He is fun to watch when he gets on base for sure, but to my untrained eye he is not a big league SS, perhaps not even close.

Tiny frame, fast, gets a good jump on the base paths but for some reason can’t get a good jump on defense, ground balls in the hole etc. I think of him as a poor man’s Jose Reyes. But like, a really poor man.

The worst are his submarine air-mail throws to first, as if he’s throwing it to a little league player.

Don’t mean to rag so hard on him, just trying to say don’t expect him back in Oakland anytime soon.

C/U – re Jemile – didn’t the Red Sox have a similar skinny IFer about 10 years ago that had a shooting-star career?

Lefty

Before today’s games I posted this on Facebook:

“All I want for Mother’s Day is a win for my Dubs. And a great outing by my favorite Giant, Big Time Timmy Jim. Too much to ask?”

For awhile there I thought it might have been–at least as far as the Warriors. But I got everything I wanted! (AND brunch and flowers, of course.)

Ryan

Jemile Weeks is pretty much Dee Gordon. ‘Can’t steal first’ is the saying.

===

Stickman,

I believe you are referring to Jason Heyward and Johnny Venters. They would not have been difference makers in this series. Maybe next time. ATL will step up at home when the Giants come into town – whenever that is.

The “Persian Cat” was their best arm the Giants saw.

===

Blanco’s test will be sustaining the productivity past May, into June and beyond. Well timed rests and platoon should keep him fresh. We’ll see how he counters the pitchers’s adjustments to him. Seemed last year, pitchers successfully tried to tie him up inside.

So far, so good. We’ll see…

Ryan

Birthdays and Mother’s Day must be easy for your family members, Lefty. Giants/Warriors coffee mugs and apparel for starters. Perhaps tickets to a game for the family member that really steps up their game.

Glad your day was happy.

ClutchUp

Gray: tks very serious..

But isn’t he a secondbaseman?

Gray Whale

Grant Green at second for river cats — playing really well. Great on D. Hoping to not be a Pill….

Adam

Ryan how could you possibly know that about the braves missing players?

Will the giants win the WS this year? Thx in advance

JStreet

One game and no one wants Pill up here any more. Some of you are a littlebitfickle.

No good Blackburn’s ERA has gone up quite a bit in his last couple of outings. Hope that trend doesn’t continue.

Woj

@JStreet
Fear not. I’m still pushing for the call up of PCL leading hitter Brett Pill.
Pill as DH these next 2 games makes a ton of sense. It could happen if the Giants simply call the man up to the big club where he belongs. Bags brought up this idea a few days ago and I hope Giants brass are listening. Simply swap Pill for Noonan and add some ABs to Arias.

Lots of good hitters on Fresno too – Cole Gillespie, Roger Kieschnick, and Kensuke Tanaka all sporting >.300 batting averages too. Heath Hembree has 2 ERA as well so pitching help is there too.

Great series win by Giants. ATL is legit and total domination of them last 3 games. Well done. Blanco emerging from platoon to be LF starter. Drop Torres to backup OF please.

Doughnut

I am also a big fan of the minor league reports VGF.
Guys calling for Dawg’s head is a little harsh. The guy is a huge Giants fan and practically bleeds orange and black. He reminds of Candlestick for some reason. Maybe i saw him a lot back in the day. He made a mistake and it wasn’t a good one but banning him for life?

Gregor Blanco always seems to have big games against his former team, the braves. I think it was him last year that had a huge hit late in the game to get the win for the Giants in ATL. But the clutch double yesterday and then the furthest hit double ever today. He unloaded on that. He really does have some pop in that bat and when you see him hitting line drives like he has been lately and not striking out you start to think he may be entering the prime of his career. Maybe it is that or maybe its just the braves that bring it out in him.
This road trip ahead is very tricky and the Giants are going to have to stay sharp to make it a successful one. Toronto’s bats are starting to come to life and they have some big time right handed hitters that are probably salivating at a chance to face Barry Zito. Hopefully Barry has a few tricks up his sleeve like he normally does. Then 4 in Colorado and come home to the Nats. Very difficult.
The scheduling is pretty brutal when you look at it form the Giants perspective. Go all the way east just for 2 games and then without a day off fly all the way to Colorado and play 4 games in altitude. So Brutal. That is just a huge advantage for Colorado and a tough tough ask for anybody. You would think they could have fit this two game series into one of our other east coast trips. Looking at the schedule this year, we have a lot of very difficult and not very practical (travel wise) road trips. The Giants are going to have to raise there game and come prepared for these trips.

This division is interesting. I am not a believer in Colorado as a legit contender. I think they will fade out but they do have an insanely good lineup and there starting pitching has been surprisingly pretty solid. I think Arizona is going to be very tough this year. They are a very balanced team and they don’t beat themselves. They have the best defense in the Majors and a very solid if not great starting rotation. I think Gibson is not a good manager but they will be in the race till the end with the roster they have. Still not counting the Dodgers out either just yet.

totalfan62

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to Lefty, and to all the mothers who are regular contributors to GE blog.

Shoulda said that yesterday, but better late than never.

In the famous words of the current SportsCenter piece…

HI MOM!!

dgg

Thanks Alex for being in for Alex!

I spent my Mother’s Day cutting down, and cutting up (into 16″ lengths), two dead 45-foot trees: one Ponderosa Pine, one Douglas Fir. All the while wondering how Tim was doing– when I wasn’t worrying if the Douglas Fir was going to get hung up on the tree next to it. (I knew Bumgarner already pitched a gem.) I’m looking forward to watching Tim’s game tonight when I get home from work.

dgg

The best Mother’s Day baseball story comes from Bochy:

“She played such a big part in my baseball life … with my father being in service and gone quite a bit, she would get out there and play ball with us. She had to deal with polio, yet she still threw batting practice.”

I can’t relate to guys like Dawg and the other dummies who reached on to the field and touched live balls. What’s the big deal about a baseball? What goes through their heads when a live ball comes their way? You see the mentality more often with foul balls – guys running all over the place trying to get the ball. Granny or Little Kid in the way; no problem, just knock them out of the way. It was worse back at Candlestick, with the mostly open stands there was a lot more room for the foul ball hawks to jump over the seats, run down the aisles, etc. Get a grip Guys, it’s just a ball.

Great to see the long balls Sunday, but there is no way, despite Krukow saying it over and over, that Blanco was going to get an inside the park HR. he was just kidding about Flannery sending him, he was jogging all the way down the first base line. For an inside the park job you need a guy sprinting all the way and a big bounce way away from the outfielders, and in this case there were neither. Surely a triple if it had not bounced in to the stands but that’s it.

Ryan

That’s a very touching quote from Bochy. Thanks, dgg.

So, keep cutting wood on Lincecum starts. Do you measure before your 16″ cuts? I was sorting and working our small herd of cattle with my wife. A couple mommas and their babies aren’t too thrilled about being weaned. For Lincecum, I suppose we’ll have to make some sort of pattern out of this.

===

Jstreet,

Bring up Brett Pill. Perhaps a little DH. Perhaps a chance to hit in Denver. Give him a shot. Let’s see how it goes with one legit backup infielder.

Also, get your Joe Bonnamassa tickets. I’m sure he’s in the bay area, but he’ll be coming to the Warnor’s Theatre in Fresno on December 10th. About 80 bucks a pop. Dude can play! And he digs them blues

===

Adam, in case you missed the box scores, the Giants won their games handedly. Substituting Heyward over Gattis only makes so much difference. A top reliever ain’t worth much when trailing. Think about it.

His K% is 15.7 which is, so far, is an improvement over the 23% rate last year.

The BABIP is .347 which is better than career norms, but speedy left handed hitters like Blanco can sustain this with infield hits.

So keep up the good work Blanco!

Ryan

Brandon Belt notes.

Since 4/19 and 71 plate appearances later his line is:

.286/.366/.524 with 4 HRs, 13 RBI’s 17 Ks, 7 BBs

There’s potential for sustainability here. The K rate could come down, putting more balls in play, and perhaps more balls find holes. His BABIP on the year is .274. It was .351 last year and .273 the year before. So who knows about what luck he’ll have in that department. The important thing here is that the rate #’s above do have a chance to stick. In the middle of this stretch, he had a cold spell that may have balanced the hot streak. We shall see.

The greater question is: does a Brett Pill hitting home runs in Fresno change the outcome of a Brandon Belt AB in San Francisco. Call it the Brettpillarfly effect.

Have a great day!

Lefty

Blanco is doing a great job and calling into question whether a LF platoon even remains necessary–though Ryan made a good point about him getting fatigued and slumping last year.

Belt is doing fine, whether you measure his stats from 4/19 like Ryan does or 4/22 like others have (4/22 was when he came off the bench after getting a couple mental health days against lefties and had the walkoff hit against the Snakes). Slow start, coming along well since. Hasn’t hit the really hot streaks he had a couple times last year where he gets multiple hits for days in a row. But doing fine. Four home runs already–he didn’t even have one until mid-June last year–and the oppo one yesterday. All good signs.

The “problem” for Pill right now is the Giants are playing really well–two games up in first place, 2nd in NL in batting average, 3rd in runs scored. Doesn’t scream “shake up the roster,” especially on a road trip where you want coverage in case of an injury. And with the three good starts in a row and an offday, the bullpen should be OK, too.

But I think Pill will get his chance sometime–injury or slump for someone. I know Bochy likes him, and he’s certainly doing everything he needs to do.

Lefty

So who’s going to DH in Toronto? Two righty starters, and most of the bench is righthanded. Sandoval, with lefty Noonan playing third? Posey one game to give his legs a break? Angel Pagan to give his injury a rest on artificial turf?

ClutchUp

Andres Torres…

totalfan62

On the dh in Toronto: I’d go with Pablo & Arias at 3B. I’d also like to see Pagan get a day off; he still doesn’t look 100% recovered to me.

Ryan

Sandoval and Posey DHing once each sounds good to me.

Torres not so much, Clutch. Plug him in to give Pagan rest.

ClutchUp

Correction:

Andres is not my personal choice but it might just be Mr. Bochys…

Slide Dog

Bochy loves the matchup, I’m looking for Crawford at DH for one game. the kid needs a rest, with Noonan at short. Pablo the other day, with Noonan at third, Noonan needs some playing time.

.. because the ‘Nationals lost Saturday and Sunday to the Cubs, which always takes some doing but in these instances took real doing.’

BCGuy99

What’s wrong with a few wide ones? I thought Timmy’s FB was pretty good yesterday. Atlanta’s hitter weren’t exactly crushing it. Many were also very fooled by the off-speed. All this means Timmy’s deception must be working. The geniuses on this blog can wax on about the importance of MPH.

ClutchUp

Slide:

Many current young and older players would disagree that they need a rest. They work out before games, play the game then go directly back into the weight room.

All that keeps them ready and in the daily grind of the line up…

Ryan

Craw doesn’t seem to need a rest. Neither does Nitro Pence. Champs!

How about Bumgarner DH’s ???

===

BCguy,

Lincecum’s 89-90 probably works a lot better for him right now than 91-92. Whatever he can command he should stick with. I think he should keep working on sinking the 2 seamer. I see Tim Hudson in his future. Possibly.

Now I don’t know if that’s “genius” level observations, but it ain’t half bad.

orangeandblack

With the pitching ON, and the team barrelling up and
playing good D, this is a very, very good team. What we saw the
last 3 games was the testarosa finally tuned up, and it was fun to
be in the passenger seat. This team can finally swagger if the
pitching holds up. Thanks Tim for keeping the faith and working
your @ss off. Put a couple more of those together and the Freak is
back. And what a difference a healthy Scooter makes. Another guy
who played through problems and appears to be on the sunny side of
them. Glad Melky is getting his ring. Even if he was a d@mmned
cheater he played hard for the team and did a lot of things well
besides hit the ball. On to Toronto.

wine baroness

My money is on:

Pablo, Buster or Pagan…..with Arias or Noonan for Pablo, Big Q for Buster and Andres for Pagan.

pacman68

Ryan –

Pill hitting home runs in AAA has no effect on Bochy or Sabean’s mindset. They have seen this before and done nothing. See 2011 postings.

Belt is the first baseman now and in the future.

It would be nice to have Pill DH these upcoming games though.

totalfan62

Our Giants are third in the NL in runs scored, second in team batting average, and third in OPS. We don’t need Brett Pill or any other hitter from AAA to improve the offense.

Pill might get the call (to replace Noonan could make sense), but only to provide RH power as PH. I would rather see a 13th pitcher, as the hitters we have now are doing the job and the current bench guys could use the additional ABs.

This entire Pill thing reminds me of the Bowker siren song of 2009. Enough already.

Matthew

Lefty/Ryan- I love me some Blanco, as you know. He has gotten much hotter, and I noticed a word of caution from you two regarding hihs slump from last year, and it was credited to fatigue.

Do we know that is what caused it? Why would he get fatigued more than a guy like Pence or Crawford? Was the slump possibly based on adjustments pitchers made that he has then readjusted to?

My point is that I’m not ready to blame fatigue as the reason, and would like him to be left in the lineup for a nice stretch to allow him to disprove the fatigue label…

totalfan62

Krukow said this morning, while addressing Pablo’s weight, that he is not as heavy as he was at the end of the 2010 season. Based on the eye test, I beg to differ. My guess he’s at least 275 lbs, which was his supposed high weight mark in 2010.

Krukow did reiterate that the risk for injury is an issue, and as we all continue to say, as Pablo gets older he will not be able to play at this level while 25+ lbs. overweight. Krukow also noted–as we all can see–he is producing at an elite level right now.

Pablo could lose two lbs. a week simply by making better eating and drinking decisions. That would equate to 20 lbs. lighter by the A-S break. If he could do that he stands a better chance of remaining healthy and able to play everyday during July and August.

pacman68

Well….it looks like Brett Pill is coming to the big club

Pegs is sent down and Pill brought up.

pacman68

RT @sfgiants: Following yesterday’s game the #SFGiants optioned Francisco Peguero to triple-A and have recalled Brett Pill.

ClutchUp

Peggy will be back Ryan.

Stiff upper lip.

Peggy pa$$es the eye test but Bochy and Sabes know Pill has been in the organization longer and WOULD have made the club if he hadn’t got hurt.

We all know that Montana got his job back from Steve, or, errr was he traded to KC and we definately witnessed Alex getting his job back from Kaep … correct.

(Just kidding ya’ll / no discussion needed)

Pills injury kept him from breaking camp w/Big Club. Also his agent knew he was coming up this entire time ;=)

Ryan

Nice little cup of coffee for Pegs. I liked it. Hit over .400 in AAA, get called up. See some action, get some hits, get exposed a little so you know what you need to work on.

For Pegs, it shouldn’t be hard. He must learn to work the count. Learn to hit with 2 strikes. Take a pitch every AB for starters.

It will be easier to be short an OF than an IF, I suppose. Mainly because Belt or Pill or Arias could be thrown out there and survive a couple innings.

===

Kudos to Brett Pill. He deserves this. Nice of the Giants to reward the punishment he has exacted upon PCL baseballs. Giants do things right. Perhaps Pill does some DH work if he’s a knuckleball hitting specialist.

Skweezplay

Here’s a novel way to win three games in a row:

Get ahead early, build the lead, win going away.

Who are those guys?

Anti-Lasorda

The only thing the club needs know if to get Vogey working and we’re off and running……

As it is, domination nation this weekend. Well done boys. This weekend just showed the entire National League why they better hope we don’t make the playoffs again. Line up the squad on a ‘benchmark series’ against a playoff squad and what do you see…. 23-4 over the last three games of Cain, Bum and Timmeh….

Ryan

I knew Pill would surface. Knew Pegs would get a call – and yes, he’ll be back. How many players from the 40 man and beyond participate on the Giants active roster during a season? The average is over 30, that I know. Could it be closer to 40?

It takes a village to field a baseball team.

Matthew

Anti L pulling out some awesome Shaq Rap!!!!!

Skweezplay

Had a real interesting conversation with my car smog specialist this week.

Unprovoked, he launched into a tirade about Pablo’s weight, how he’s an injury waiting to happen, how he will wear down over the course of the season, and how he’s not giving 100% to the team.

I thought, Gee, the guy is hitting .310 with power from both sides, hustles and makes plays on defense, and plays happy. He hit three HRs in game one of the World Series against one of the best pitchers on the planet.

Yes, he’s obviously overweight, but how hard on him to you really want to be?

Skweezplay

Hey, does anyone know if those two guys who dress up as the home plate umpire and sit behind the plate in Toronto are still there?

Those guys were hysterical.

Keep’n It Real

Didn’t listen to the whole game, but my neighbor said the broadcaster (KNBR) were giving it to “the Dawg” pretty bad for his blunder *and* mentioned he’s done this a few times. Anyone else hear this?

3 of 4 against the “mighty” Braves. Nice!

Reaper

Pill is AAAA. Do people really think he should be taking ABs away from a considerably younger player in BB9? PCL hitting numbers have never been a good way to predict future success. How many giants “hitting prospects” looked great in Fresno? If you want him to get the occasional pinch hit, then fine. But platoon is not the way to go.

dgg

What position is Pill going to play? Will this be a platoon at 1st Base? I really hope not.

ClutchUp

Matty Ice / Matthew @ 1009.

Blanco mentioned on one of his blogs that he was apparently ‘married’ to some really over the top workout program that he had for many many yrs and that the Giants trainers made him see the light.

Apparently with a Shark, less can be more!

Lefty

Good for Pill. He deserves it. They must be feeling OK about Angel’s health if they’re optioning an extra OF right before a road trip. As for Pegs/Peggy, he got some starts and ABs during his 10 days, so no one can complain that he didn’t get a chance. Under similar circumstances–in fact, with fewer ABs–Noonan took better advantage of his opportunity.

Not sure what this says about Peguero’s future. If he hits over .400 in Fresno, gets a call-up, and lasts only 10 days, I’m not sure what he’d have to do to get another chance. And there are other OFs in Fresno who might merit a look, too (Kieschnick, Brown if he keeps hitting better, Perez, Gillespie).

ClutchUp

Reaper
Dgg

Pill is coming off the Bench
Double Switches…
He has a better ‘book’ on all the P’s in both leagues.
Peggy had NO book
Pill will know what’s coming in certain counts

Pill earned a spot out of ST

Might grab an inning in LF ala X Nady or could double switch to 1base with BB9 going to LF in an 18inn extra inn game ;=/

Lefty

I don’t want to see either Pill OR Belt in LF, please. Did you notice this weekend what how awful it is when incompetent OFs play at AT & T?

Gattis, I can understand. He’s primarily a catcher and they wanted his bat in the lineup. I’m still stunned at how terrible J. Upton looked in both corner OF positions this weekend. I didn’t remember him being that bad when he played for AZ.

dgg

Clutch,

So Pill will likely be the DH in interleague games?

Anti-Lasorda

Pegs will be back, this is just Pills a better DH for the games coming up 8 of 21 against the AL.

Reward Pill with a few ABs on the Big Club, and remind Belt he shouldn’t get comfortable. Pills isn’t going to replace BB9 unless the floor falls out.

The other thing as someone else mentioned. A few MLB ABs and a fair performance will increase Pill’s trade value and perhaps help when we send him on for an arm. If you don’t want to have to trade Belt for that arm (read Vogey 2.0) , you need to be able to get SOMETHING for Pill.

No coincidence that BY the begining of June the AL clubs drop off until Baltimore in Aug. By then Pill most likely will be gone. Pegs will get the call as soon as Pill is traded. Book it Dan-o.

ClutchUp

Dgg:

Pill will DH if/if the Starter is lefthanded, but not if the Starter is RH or Lefty starter leaves the game.

#6 still has issues with a rhandeders pitch down-away in the dirt, but don’t we/they all?

Petey Feliz & Matty Williams.

Lefty!! = I said (haha) ONE inning….

Keep’n It Real

My gut-feeling is Pill *will not* be taking any time at 1B away from BB9.

Belt is coming around and it makes no sense to mess with team success and any time Buster is spending over there.

Lefty

I don’t understand why Pill would DH in Toronto. They’re facing two right-handed starters. Maybe against the A’s coming up, though. They have a tough lefty (Jorge de la Rosa) on Friday in Colorado…of course, that’s also a good time to get Buster a game at 1B.

ClutchUp

WoW I never felt all those tiny Bay Area Earthquakes over the weekend.

I thought it was Pablo’s great legal slide vs Uggla.

Matt Holiday should take note on how its done. 3.9 on the Rictor Scale.

Heh
Heh

Ryan

Pill could steal some starts with a tough lefty on the hill. No biggie there. A bench player needs reps. Belt would just have to suck it up and keep on truckin’.

Running Pill or Belt or Arias out to left in an emergency ain’t no big thing. If the ball finds them, hopefully its a can of corn. Not as much would be lost as you might perceive. Count the # of balls hit to LF in a game. How many would only be made by Blanco?

===

A-L,

Pill ain’t getting traded. Backup 1Bs are not a hot commodity. Giants need him to back up Belt way more than any other team needs him.

Woj

AMEN. Congrats Brett Pill. Completely deserved and doing
this now so you can get some ABs in Toronto as the DH makes
complete sense. I’ve been pro-Brett Pill since spring training. The
only! reason he didn’t make the club out of Spring was an injury
then he smoked PCL pitching for 6 weeks. Several bloggers said
Sabes and Bochy don’t pay attention to Pill’s great production in
the PCL – ummm. NOT! Again, PiLL IMO is the best DH vs. AL teams in
AL Parks SF has. Zero defensive drop off when he DHes and ++ power.
AL style ball in their parks demands a little extra offense. I’m
sure the Belt fringe is freaking out since Pill will push Belt. If
Belt does into an 0fer for a series, there is an alternative. Belt
is slowly, coming around. Up to .237 right now – he needs to keep
that trend going. Belt is better defensively but Pill may be better
offensively. Nobody really knows but Pill deserves his shot. Well
does giants brass. It would be great to see Pill as the #6/#7
hitter as LF/1B or DH and Belt as the #6/#7 hitter at 1B.

ClutchUp

SL shuts down Westbrook/Elbow

Astros Dfa Philip Humber=Gee how far the Perfect gamer has fallen.

Sign former A – Edgar Gonzalez

Cubbies: 7 yrs/41M for Rizzo.

Rox Cuddyer 15 day DL

BoSox – Catcher Ross 7day concussed list. Recall Lavarnway.

NYY place IF Nunez on DL, recall Alberto Gonzales.

The Melkdown receives his Ring/Box today during workouts or tomorrow via …maybe a courier hired to walk it over to the Jays Dugout.

Speaking of WTHeck; How’s it working out = recycling J Gibbons as Skipper?

Two of those teams have legit playoff aspirations and a mature MLB proven hitter to fill those roles with 4 years of team control would look appealing. The other two could use cheap team controlled offensive upgrades.

~YMMV

Reaper

I’m not assuming Pill will take ABs from Belt, but I hope
some of you can understand my concern. If he’s used simply as
Clutch describes, I have no issue with it.

Anti-Lasorda

Clutch,

Bochy confirmed he, himself, the Boch, will carve the roast beast and present the Mlekman with the hardware….

I would see putting Pill or Belt or Arias in LF as something to do only if it’s an 18-inning game and/or one of the real OFs gets injured during the game. Absolutely not as a double-switch in a regular nine-inning game. Whatever miniscule advantage you might gain offensively is lost by the risk of some critical fly ball being muffed for a double or triple.

To me it’s along the same lines as putting Pablo behind the plate–for an emergency you hope and pray never, ever happens.

I don’t know how some of you can say it’s “no big deal” to put an infielder in the outfield. I remember Huff and Pill playing the OF last year. They were both really bad. Belt ain’t no great shakes, either, but I think he does have more major league reps in the OF than either Arias or Pill.

I just would like some of you to think back to this time last year when the Giants were one of the worst defensive teams in the majors. The biggest reason was that Bochy kept sacrificing defense to try to put more offense in the lineup, especially in platoon situations. He finally stopped doing that, and the team immediately stabilized and started winning, going from 7.5 games out in late May to first place by the end of June.

There is nothing wrong with the Giants’ offense right now. On the contrary, it is humming along just beautifully. The LAST thing they need to do is further destabilize some of the shakier starters by weakening the defense behind them just to get the possibility of a tiny bit more offense when they already have plenty. And remember, Pill is only a POSSIBILITY of more offense. So was Peguero, and look where he is–on the bus to Fresno.

Anti-Lasorda

Umm, the long term solution at 1B. Some guy named Sandoval. Arias starts everyday at 3B.

Panda rotates back to 3B on days Posey play 1B a la Miggy Cabrerra.

Heck they could call up Linden if they wanted…. .286/.342/.486 and he switch hits.

Do you think there is that big a drop off between Linden and Pill not to get something for him before he Rule 5s out in October?

Your call.

South City Jim

Happy for Pill. Van Slyke got the call for the bums this weekend and jacked one out yesterday. Hopefully Pill will do the same. I see him more in a PH role and a DH against lefties than a platoon at 1B. I could see him playing a little LF in the bandboxes, perhaps even Toronto. Definitely not Colorado…too much ground to cover.

ClutchUp

Brandon Belt is XXXX times the firstbaseman that 48 is.

They’ve found their short/long term 1st baseman.

He wears #9 … … …

OMT

Well, after attending 3 games at ATT last week, I have to agree that Panda DOES look like he has lost some weight. You can see it in his face mostly. So unless you’ve seen him in person…

—-

Disappointed with the Amy G racist remark way above. My .02 about her is when she came on board I was not impressed with her journalistic skills and delivery stutters, BUT she has come a long way and is “almost” flawless in delivery now (no one is perfect). Plus, she seems to be a really sweet person, seems like almost family now to the players, and isn’t hard on the eyes. It would be almost tough to accept a new person in that role just because someone else would now seem out of place. If someone has to do that job, I’m ok with her now.

That being said, I am not and never have been a fan of so many updates, shots of fans, etc. etc. I dislike, the long shot of someone in a crowd, then the quick cut back to the pitcher almost delivering the ball. More game, less flutter. Just imo.

Anti-Lasorda

True..

But Panda is XXXXX time the hitter than Belt will ever be. And he ain’t playing 3B at 3 bills when he’s 30. So unless you plan on letting him walk post 2014. He’s your 1B long term.

Say this about the Panda, he rakes and he sells a lot of hats….

Where do you think the org is going to go with that one?

~YMMV

Lefty

Sandoval seems destined to end up as a 1B/DH unless he finds Anti’s “Fitness Jesus” soon. But right now he’s a pretty fine third baseman. And the Giants have no one to replace him at third unless they make a trade or Adam Duvall makes good progress through the system over the next year or two–and learns to play the position competently.

Arias is an outstanding utility player and NOT an everyday third baseman. If you jettison Belt, move Pablo to first, and make Arias the everyday 3B, what have you accomplished? You’ve definitely weakened the defense at first and you’ve weakened the offense, unless you really think Arias is a better hitter than Belt is now or will be. And there is no reason to think that, is there?

Ryan

Yup, OMT.

Too much time devoted to ‘Gamer Babes’ etc. Note to wannabe GB’s: if you bring a sign declaring that you are a ‘Gamer Babe’, you are NOT a gamer babe.

Anti-Lasorda

No, none at all in the short term Dr Lefty.

I was just saying that if Belt gets hurt, that’s where I would go.

I was also emphasizing thast longterm, I don’t feel Pablo’s faith in the cult of Fitness…. he just likes too many arepas.

Maybe he gets it under control, maybe the 100M reasons next winter is going to motivate him to have faith, but so far…. I don’t find him a true believer.

Ryan

Lefty,

You should try that exercise for Giants games. Chart the number of balls hit to left field and evaluate the difficulty of those balls in play. Do so for each starter.

I think you are over-reacting to the small sample size of muffed plays. They look bad, but they are not destined to happen with significant frequency. A couple innings here and there and the risk mitigated. In the right circumstances, the reward of the bat matchup outweighs the risk in the field.

Give it a try. It would be interesting to read your report.

Lefty

Aaarghh! Why do you all want to see Pill in left field? I don’t get it. Pill has played LF:

–not at all in 2013
–in seven games for the Giants in 2012
–in two games for Fresno in 2012
–in two games for Fresno in 2011

That’s it. He is NOT an outfielder. It would make more sense to say he should play 2B (57 games for Fresno in 2011) or 3B (6 games for Fresno in 2010-11). It would make more sense to say Marco Scutaro should play left field (18 games in the outfield in the majors).

Nope. Pill should play 1B, DH, or pinch-hit. Anything else, short of a dire emergency, is insanity.

South City Jim

Okay, Lefty, no LF for Pill. Still glad he’s with the big club where he belongs.

Reaper

OMT, you are far too gracious. The Giants do a great job of treating us fans like infants wearing diapers and shaking a pink rattle. From Renel Brooks-Moon screaming Scutaro’s name over the PA like she is talking to a gaggling baby (as opposed to how a real PA announcer should speak, that is…normally) to Amy G’s constant updates on inane, unimportant and intentionally cutesy details about the players. Or little player gossip blogs named using the dumbest puns imaginable. Please. In game updates and reporters (male or female)are fine, as long as they relate to on the field performance.

Reaper

Anti-Lasorda, let’s see how Panda ages before we cement him over at 1B for the next decade. It’s possible he won’t be playable anywhere. Just saying we don’t know how he’ll turn out, there isn’t a lot to compare to.

Ryan

A-L, You trade Sandoval next offseason. That’s the answer.
But you can only trade if Belt maintains production level since my
magic cut-off date of 4-19. Need to keep a solid 3-4-5 tact
(resigning Pence assumed). Could get back a young guy to compete
with Arias at third. But not too good, because might have to get
Posey over there. But get an MLB ready pitching prospect. Boom boom
boom boooom … gonna shoot ya right down

Lefty

Ryan:

Muffed plays in the outfield are like car accidents on the freeway. If you’re going 15 MPH in your neighborhood and get into a little fender bender, only minimal harm done usually–but they’re more frequent. Car accidents on the freeway are less common, but because you’re going so fast, people can die.

When a play is blown in the OF, it’s nearly always for extra bases. If the bases were empty, that puts the pitcher under a lot of stress–more than say an infield grounder muffed and the runner’s only at first. If there were runners on, those runners score. Just like a smash-up on the freeway.

But let me turn a question back on you: Why, on a team that is doing very well offensively but struggling with its pitching (still only 12th in the NL in ERA after the very good weekend) would you argue that it’s a good idea to risk weakening the defense to get more offense? That makes no sense to me.

Ryan

A-L,

You trade Sandoval next offseason. That’s the answer. But you can only trade if Belt maintains production level since my magic cut-off date of 4-19. Need to keep a solid 3-4-5 tact (resigning Pence a$sumed).

Could get back a young guy to compete with Arias at third. But not too good, because might have to get Posey over there.

But get an MLB ready pitching prospect.

Boom boom boom boooom … gonna shoot ya right down

South City Jim

Amy G. is part of a marketing campaign. The Giants have the best ballpark in the land and consistently put an outstanding product on the field. They are going to talk to fans between innings. It’s not my thing either but it’s not going away and she does it as well as anyone. Small price to pay in going for three out of four.

OMT

Reaper, yes, I pretty much said/feel that exactly. My feelings on Renel are well documented on this blog, so don’t even get me started on her! ugh!

OMT

SCJ, well said. Agree.

Will be good to see if Pill has it this time, because he never has yet.

Ryan

Lefty,

you’re making a mountain out the mole hill of a potential inning or two here or there.

Since you pull up the auto accident example, maybe you should treat this like an actuary. Pull out some #’s and rates. Do a proper analysis of risk/reward. You may, in the end, be right and have something to add to your Baseball Curriculum and you could get an article published at fangraphs or Hardball Times.

Think big!

Vegas Giants Fan

OMG!!! Pill is coming up to the Big Club. Katie bar the door. Holy guacamole! Batman.

I guess I’m in a feisty mood today. The Giants are simply swapping one bench player for another. I knew about this yesterday but didn’t want to say anything so as not to ruin Mother’s Day on this board. That’s why I left a cryptic message in the Minor League Report. Monell (1B).

I have a question for everyone. How does a player who has just 5 hits all season, 2 of which came in the second game of the season, and none since April 27, not get blasted daily on this board. It seems almost everyone else on the 25 man roster has suffered this fate except this one player. Flies right under the radar. I don’t get it.

I don’t blast players an I’m not doing that right now.(although it may seem so). This is about the board.

Just one of those curious baseball similarities. Cody, BTW, did alright at the plate after his June 5th call up.

South City Jim

VGF…Arias?

Ryan

And yes, Lefty, in the right circumstances, plugging Belt or Pill in left field would be worth the gamble. Imagine playing in GAP or some other band box against a lefty starter who is tough on lefties. Posey at first, Pill in LF. Got another guy who could put one out in the lineup as you stack righties. Pill pops one out. Catches 2 lazy fly balls. Fields two singles. Plays a ball off the wall. Call it a typical day in left field.

Ryan

Yes, Arias. 34 irregular plate appearances can do that. The blog is more measured that you had imagined.

Anti-Lasorda

You can trade him fer sure Ryan, The line of suitors, especially from the AL teams with his ownership of Verlander would be long. VERY LONG.

Question for the class though…

Under what circumstance do you see an Giants club in a pennant race trading Pablo Sandoval? I mean unless you assume by 2014 the club has already fallen out of it and doesn’t need one of the top five hitters in beisbol.

Yeah, that works Footie…

It is much, much, much more likely they ride out the string, and then make a call in the winter of 2014. Does Belt’s performance merit keeping him over Panda? Has Panda done enough on the fitness and maturity end to trust with a 7 year $150M contract?

Right now, I think I know the answer to #1, #2… not so much.

But I think of some really young good Venezuelan thirdbaseman the Florida Marlins had. Kid could hit, started to pack on some lbs and the fish traded him to another club. They moved him to first base. What did he do during his age 30 season… that’s right. He won the frickin’ triple crown for the first time in 40 years and was the AL MVP.

Sure, save the cash. You’ll find that around the corner. And Sabean does REALLY well evaluating free agrent talent when paying premium prices.

~YMMV

Anti-Lasorda

You can trade him fer sure Ryan, The line of suitors, especially from the AL teams with his ownership of Verlander would be long. VERY LONG.

Question for the group though…

Under what circumstance do you see an Giants club in a pennant race trading Pablo Sandoval? I mean unless you assume by 2014 the club has already fallen out of it and doesn’t need one of the top five hitters in beisbol.

Yeah, that works Footie…

It is much, much, much more likely they ride out the string, and then make a call in the winter of 2014. Does Belt’s performance merit keeping him over Panda? Has Panda done enough on the fitness and maturity end to trust with a 7 year $150M contract?

Right now, I think I know the answer to #1, #2… not so much.

But I think of some really young good Venezuelan thirdbaseman the Florida Marlins had. Kid could hit, started to pack on some lbs and the fish traded him to another club. They moved him to first base. What did he do during his age 30 season… that’s right. He won the frickin’ triple crown for the first time in 40 years and was the AL MVP.

Sure, save the cash. You’ll find that around the corner. And Sabean does REALLY well evaluating free agrent talent when paying premium prices.

~YMMV

Anti-Lasorda

You can trade him fer sure Ryan, The line of suitors, especially from the AL teams with his ownership of Verlander would be long. VERY LONG.

Question for the group though…

Under what circumstance do you see an Giants club in a pennant race trading Pablo Sandoval? I mean unless you think by 2014 the club has already fallen out of it and doesn’t need one of the top five hitters in beisbol.

Yeah, that works Footie…

It is much, much, much more likely they ride out the string, and then make a call in the winter of 2014. Does Belt’s performance merit keeping him over Panda? Has Panda done enough on the fitness and maturity end to trust with a 7 year $150M contract?

Right now, I think I know the answer to #1, #2… not so much.

But I think of some really young good Venezuelan thirdbaseman the Florida Marlins had. Kid could hit, started to pack on some lbs and the fish traded him to another club. They moved him to first base. What did he do during his age 30 season… that’s right. He won the frickin’ triple crown for the first time in 40 years and was the AL MVP.

Sure, save the cash. You’ll find that around the corner. And Sabean does REALLY well evaluating free agrent talent when paying premium prices.

~YMMV

Vegas Giants Fan

South:

Yes.

South City Jim

If Arias got more regular ABs, he’d either hit more or he wouldn’t fall under the radar. Considering he can play all four IF positions and by doing so let’s Bochy sleep well at night, I give him a pass.

Ryan

I just think Sandoval is a lot of risk out there. Whether it’s first or third. His metabolism ain’t getting any quicker. The abuse on the joints takes a toll.

With productive season this year, the prospect haul would outstrip the inherent risk of playing out the string, IMO. 2 good young players are better than one great player who may spend extended time on DL at some point.

===

Arias needs AB’s. He needs to be evaluated and more importantly, he needs to be sharp.

Skweezplay

I cannot see trading Sandoval. He’s one of the most athletic players in MLB, has off-the-charts baseball IQ, and plays great in big games.

He’s an ace-beater.

Skweezplay

We all know why Arias has only five hits — he’s not getting a chance to tune up his swing.

Surely you all can recall the torrid streak he had last year. It’s insanity to think that no one on the infield will get hurt this year. If and when they do, Arias can step in and produce consistently strong defense, and his bat will warm up.

I was thinking earlier today, I am looking forward to seeing Arias get hot with the bat at some point this season.

He was absolutely scorching balls last year.

Giant PITA

Pill is here to DH and PH (right Bruce?). No LF for Pill. Blanco is earning that job on an every day basis. Keep it up Greg. Zito needs to keep this Starting Pitching Train rolling tomorrow. That will really push Vogey to step it up on Wed.

I wholeheartedly agree with Reaper. Sideline reports should be about on field action period. Brooks Moon should be on Romper Room. I’d love to hear a REAL PA announcer at Mays Park.

South City Jim

My response regarding Arias is in moderation…jeez…

Agree with others, Arias hasn’t gotten regular ABs, plus he can play all four IF positions. Not worried about Arias.

Lefty

Uh, Anti–

Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown last year playing THIRD base.

And Ryan, in your scenario, I’d still rather have Torres out in LF if I have to pick between him and Pill. Torres is actually an outfielder and quite a good one most days. He may be better in CF (where he was when Burrell called him “the gazelle” in the “Wild Kingdom” outfield).

You’re banking a lot on the extremely unproven a$$umption that Pill would be any kind of offensive upgrade over Torres. Torres has actually logged a major league season with 16 home runs and over 40 doubles, and I know that was in 2010, but it’s more of a legitimate track record than Pill has (yet).

But I repeat: What’s your argument for intentionally weakening the defense to (maybe) improve an offense that is not even remotely a problem?

Reaper

Why are you guys (161 and 163) acting like Arias is some untapped prospect waiting to bust out if given the chance? Dude is almost 30. He’s a bench scrub (I use the term without derogation) who can come in and fill a spot in the lineup for a few days and show a little versatility on D. Not a starter, never will be. Doesn’t have the discipline or power.

stickman

Sending Peguero to the Fresnobus was a no-brainer. After his dramatic start with that double his hits fell off to nothing, his AB’s were short due to overanxiety at the plate and thus he simply did not produce offensively. He’s seen a bit more of The Show and now he should know what is expected. We may suppose that the manager and coaches in Fresno will have him work on those deficiencies so that next callup sees him good to go.

Pill up. As i noted on previous posts he represents a RH power threat off the bench and could be useful as a DH in AL dink-hitter venues. Once every week or two he could get lubed up a bit by playing first so the rust doesn’t set in. My fingers are crossed as to “lead Bruce not into temptation”. Hopefully Sabes had a little talk with the field manager as to the circumstances under which Pill might start at 1B. My suggestion would be that could be situationally apt should he tear it up in the DH and PH roles. Otherwise BB9 is set in steel.

channelclemente

Ryan,

fess up, you’d trade your Mom for a candy bar.

Woj

@Ryan says:
…Too much time devoted to ‘Gamer Babes’ etc. Note to wannabe GB’s: if you bring a sign declaring that you are a ‘Gamer Babe’, you are NOT a gamer babe.

Thank you for making me laugh during lunch. The broadcast showed 4 female mini whales each holding a Gamer Babe sign and I think out of sheer time filling, Krukow said hey there some gamer babes. No No No!
Those are 2 bagger females that stole signs from true gamer babes. Confuscius say — Far more to Being Giants Gamer Babe than holding lying sign.

channelclemente

stick ,

more than likely Pill = Pequero after 2-3 weeks and pitchers/scouts see film. Exactly who in Fresno can fix anything associated with a bat. They must be keeping a really low profile, it seems to me, or maybe saving their wizardry for just the right guy, huh.

channelclemente

stick ,

more than likely Pill = Pequero after 2-3 weeks and pitchers/scouts see film. Exactly who in Fresno can fix anything a$$ociated with a bat. They must be keeping a really low profile, it seems to me, or maybe saving their wizardry for just the right guy, huh.

Woj

@Lefty-
Your assertion that Andres Torres is better right now offensively than Brett Pill is highly questionable. 2010 was 2.5 years ago.

Sandy Alderson – Mets GM was so high on Torres 2013 version that he let him go completely for nothing in return. Pill is the PCL’s leading hitter. Torres looked awful 2 games ago with a hat trick of Ks and he’s had a couple of clutch hits. Torres has 1 home run and ~ .240 average. I’m pretty confident Pill can match those #s easily in less ABs but time will tell how Pill does. He’s earned a month long look see I know that and apparently Sabes does too.

Skweezplay

Wrong again, Reaper. Not a bench scrub as you say.

Did you watch any of the Giants games last year?

Do you happen to recall a player named Pablo Sandoval going down with an injury? Do you recall who stepped in to play 3B? Good gracious, get a grip.

No one’s saying he’s a prospect or a starter.

But he is a proven utility player with a tendency to get hot for a week or two.

ClutchUp

Hmmm, I never said I wanted BP6 in LF … I qualified it with a late game double switch or an “18” inning game.

We ALL remember when Nady was trying to Camp under the slicing fly ball in LF in Cincy when GB7 was removed from the game.

Hearts were racing – on the other hand Xman professionally caught the ball with ease – as did Burrell on many cans of corn and as did Aubrey on occassions when it was an atom ball. Not all plays by sub-outfielders or converted IF’s end up with homicide tape on the ground…

But again, I’m not calling for anybody but Blanco, Torres, Peggy or Cole Gillespie to be trotted out there. BP6 and BB9 could ‘handle it’ in a pinch but it would have to be mitigated by the innings and situations of that particular game….

Muttley

Given the need for a DH this week and next, I think this is a good move. The cons against bringing up Pill was his (supposedly) bad D. Let him play DH and see what he has in his bat. If he can continue to hit, I say why not throw him in LF. He can’t be THAT bad a defender can he? SF won a WS with Pat Burrell as our LF!!

Are you counting on Arias to carry the team? If so, I’m worried for all of us. And why would you just look at last year when Arias seemingly rose out of the ashes from a faltering career? Didn’t Andres Torres provide enough of an example of this type of player. His career track record doesn’t suggest he’ll repeat or improve. I’m not saying we DFA him or anything, just that he isn’t an impact guy so why are people worried about him getting his ABs. He’ll play when someone else can’t go and he’ll do what he can when he’s in there. Isn’t much else to say.

Ryan

Only if it’s a Payday, CC.

===

All y’all need to unlatch the meme for Brett Pill is a AAAA hitter and nothing more, barely deserved of the SF uni.

Check out his K rate. It’s low for guy with long ball potential.

And I certainly hope Pill can out OPS Andres Torres and the mid .600 thing he puts up every year.

So given 4 OFs, a lefty on the hill in a band box, Torres perhaps scuffling; yeah, run Pill out there for 3 ABs and bring in the D late.

We’ve seen this movie before. A hot swinging Brett Pill could be like Pat the Bat. Don’t make LF seem so difficult. It’s not 2B/SS. No sense arguing about things with a likelihood of happening.

Hmmm, I never said I wanted BP6 in LF … I qualified it with a late game double switch or an “18″ inning game.

We ALL remember when Nady was trying to Camp under the slicing fly ball in LF in Cincy when GB7 was removed from the game.

Hearts were racing – on the other hand Xman profe$$ionally caught the ball with ease – as did Burrell on many cans of corn and as did Aubrey on occa$$ions when it was an atom ball. Not all plays by sub-outfielders or converted IF’s end up with homicide tape on the ground…

But again, I’m not calling for anybody but Blanco, Torres, Peggy or Cole Gillespie to be trotted out there. BP6 and BB9 could ‘handle it’ in a pinch but it would have to be mitigated by the innings and situations of that particular game….

Ryan

Looks super interesting CC. Thanks!

==

Without further ado, allow me to relentlessly beat the last horse just a little.

It has to do with the Brett Pill is a AAAA player meme.

Are you ready?

Andres Torres was a AAAA player. Gregor Blanco was a AAAA player. Joaquin Arias a AAAA player. Guillermo Quiroz a AAAA’er. Nick Noonan is probably a AAAA player. Peguero could be in that mix also.

Had the Giants an incumbent SS at the time Crawfords arrival, he could have been on the path to AAAA.

Don’t look back, but Marco Scutaro may have add the makings of a AAAA’er before he became a regular at age 28.

I hope I’ve made something resembling a point.

Ryan

thank you Clutch for backing that assertion. I know you know about LF.

Ryan

thank you Clutch for backing that a$sertion. I know you know about LF.

Anti-Lasorda

Lefty,

True, but the Fish didn’t trust Cabrera and traded him to the Tiger to keep Mike Jacobs and to make room for Gabby Sanchez at 1B and they had this wonderful ole artist Jorge Cantu to play 3B. Cabrera was move to 1B after his initial season and only moved back to 3B last year due to the Fielder acquisition. Cabrera did yeoman’s work at 3B, but he had zero range, and was ripe to have bunts dropped on him. Still both true as he plays 3B today.

So in essence Florida missed on both counts if you want to point out the comparison. One, Cabrera didn’t get oo big to be a serviceable, just not a good 3B and Sanchez and Cantu each only had one good season before flaming out and neither was nowhere near good enough to keep over Cabrera…

Of course the Marlins make idiotic decisions like that for money and ther couldn’t pay Miggy anyway. They did get back the wonderful load of
Dallas Trahern (minors), Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller and Mike Rabelo.

Only Maybin has been a decent MLBer.

Sure, Go ahead. Trade the Panda.

Lefty

And like I said the last time someone compared Brett Pill to Pat Burrell…Pat the Bat had 275 major league home runs when the Giants signed him. He had a proven track record, so it was worth taking a risk on his defense for 6-7 innings. Pill has no such track record, and since he’s going to be a bench player, it’s unlikely he’ll ever acquire one, at least not on the Giants.

Context is important, too. The 2010 Giants were anemic offensively the first couple months of the season–until they brought up Posey and signed Burrell. Their pitching was great that year (they led the majors in ERA), but they were running out Eugenio Velez and Ryan Rohlinger and Matt Downs and Aaron Rowand. Jonathan Sanchez was pitching one-hitters and losing 1-0.

In that scenario–lights-out pitching and no offense–putting Burrell in LF was worth the tradeoff on defense. The opposite is true now.

ClutchUp

ARIAS is a super uber utility substitute that Sabean will keep around and pay handsomely until some AL team like KC or the Brewers tells his agent that they’ll pay him way over card and market rate to be their starter.

#13 is as valuable a current Giant then any they’ve had in the last 25 yrs similar to the value that Ken Oberkfell had for one 1989 season as a super sub playing three spots and hitting plus .300. There are other/better comparisons also …

Arias is very good. Texas has good people in their scouting dept and they snagged him because early reports on #13 had him listed above Cano…

When SF or any team inserts there bench guys for protracted playing time it weakens the bench (with him prior being on it) and its exposes flaws that sub-tier guys usually have trying to sustain their skills from going to part time play to full time. When teams like SF catch lightening in a bottle like they did with Arias full time for Panda, it makes things that much sweeter (and confusing) for their fan base imo.

channelclemente

Ryan,

8 out of 10 prospects are ultimately AAA lifers. That why, IMO, out of the millions of kids/guys who play ball, there are only 750 men on major league 25 man rosters.

Lefty

Anti: As I recall, Cabrera went to work and lost a bunch of weight after they signed Fielder and it was apparent he’d have to play third. And yes, he’s not a very good third baseman, but his offense more than compensated for that. We know the Panda can lose weight if he decides he’s going to. My favorite scenario has Pablo finding Fitness Jesus and going to daily services and being the 3B for many years. He’s only 26, for Pete’s sake, and he’s pretty darn good over there. The other problem with moving Pablo to first is what about Posey when he gets older?

I’m certainly not one saying trade Pablo. I think they should extend him as soon as they can. He and Buster–they’re the only two really great hitters the Giants have produced since Will Clark and Matt Williams. I don’t see how you let that walk away. It’s not like The Thrill and Williams didn’t have their flaws, either.

Lefty

The thing with Ryan is he’s anti-Belt and pro-Pill and has been since last year (or anti-Belt and pro-Morneau, pro-Smoak, pro-anyone-but-Belt).

That’s OK. It’s a free country. Just own it! You’re entitled to your opinion. And you’re not alone. Woj is certainly in your corner.

Me, I’m not anti-Pill. I like Pill. But I am anti-platoon and anti-infielders playing the outfield. If Pill rakes and Belt tanks and Pill takes over 1B, then good for him. That would be better than a useless platoon or someone butcher LF when we have arguably the BEST LEFT FIELDER IN THE MAJORS ON OUR ROSTER.

Ryan

Pat Burrell was on his last legs when the Giants caught him. He was pretty much done before catching a last gasp of lightning in a bottle. His bat speed was not the same as in the Philly days. Still a patient hitter with pop. But old Pat the Bat not that much removed from younger Brett Pill as far as ability to put one in the seats.

YMMV

Ryan

atta girl Lefty !!

way to mischaracterize.

you are a tried and true defender/articulator of memes. How do you like that characterization?

channelclemente

Ryan,

and how many YEARs of experience did Burrell have vs. Pill. You might take a little more care in your analogies. It’s an apples and oranges comparison.

Still Beating a Dead Horse

If Pill doesn’t cut it, I hope that ends the discussion forever.

channelclemente

SBDH,

you’re kidding of course. Then, when Pequero has a good week or two in AAA, he’ll be promoted back to savior de jour.

Anti-Lasorda

From Dr. Lefty…..

“My favorite scenario has Pablo finding Fitness Jesus and going to daily services and being the 3B for many years. ”

Mine too, I’m just not planning on it. Even if you pull the trigger early on dealing Belt for an arm to clear room for Panda long term, and Panda becomes a true believer, thern you have Buster that could migrate to 1B with the plethora of C prospects (Sanchez, Susac) or go get a 1B somewhere else. 1 Baggers are a much easier to find that switch hitting 3B with power…

I can only think of one off hand, an he’ll be elected to the Hall of Fame in 5 years. Ain’t that right Larry? I mean unless you get coaxed for 1 more play off run and hook up with the old club in July, which you swaer isn’t going to happen… is it Larry?

Anti-Lasorda

The only thing this club needs saving from is a Vogelsong start right now. Belt’s just fine.

walt kovacs

anti-lasorda, you really need to get your head out of your huge behind

i really dont get the pegs/pill move

channelclemente

Thanks walt for your content filled post claiming absolute ignorance. Some clarity about Pill might be found in the two bandbox parks we’ll be playing in and the type of ball Pill hits (Toronto-Denver). IMO, his value evaporates in 2-3 weeks after a new scouting reports are out and we’re back in AT&T where a LD hitter is a more sensible choice..

Skweezplay

Who’s gonna DH in Toronto? What do you think the lineup will look like?

walt kovacs

cc,

he is a better right handed bat off the bench or for dh choice than we have now?

if pegs was gonna end up spending most of his time sitting, cuz pagan is ok, i have less prob with the move, but schulman made some asinine comment about pegs struggling in the field and at the plate

i like pill

i have also learned that what guys do in the pcl doesnt mean squat when they hit the bigs

Matthew

Welcome to the Theatre of Short Memories. today , we share a cautionary tale about fans who forget the dramatic savior at 3rd base at a critical time last season, a wandering batsman adorned with sweet leather and a rifle, the man they call Joaquin.

Oh, some called him a “bench scrub” without a hint of irony, saying it isn’t meant to be derogatory. Indeed, this so called scrub saved the team at a tenuous moment and raised them from the ashes he was accused of inhabiting.

Long live King Joaquin!!

Anti-Lasorda

Ya know walt,

I’ve been trying with Nutri-system and some light jogging, but thanks for the support.

Keep’n It Real

OK…I was bored 🙂

Can I whine my way to San Jose?
Bud is taking so long. This may go wrong and won’t get my way.
Can I whine my way to San Jose?
I’ve going back to buy more empty lots in San Jose.

L.A. is a great big cesspool.
Trading Cespedes to L.A. will leave a scar.
In a week, maybe two, he’ll be hitting ‘em far.
Weeks turn into years. How quick they pass-
And all the fans that won’t forget
Are going to bars and saving gas.

Can I whine my way to San Jose?
I’ve bought a lot of land. Bud needs to help me get my way.
I‘ll just lie and say I was raised in San Jose.
I’m going back to find some cheap land in San Jose.

Being misleading can be easy.
We’ll be farther from the Giants’ home.
Clear logistical advantages will never be shown.
Fans stop driving up 101 and go away.
And then you are without 3M fans
I’ll print money and ride away.

Mark Purdy is my friend in San Jose.
Can I whine my way to San Jose?
Can’t wait to fleece over San Jose.

Anti: After watching the “new look Braves” this weekend, I think they miss ol’ Larry. And Prado. And Bourn. Their lineup lost three bona fide professional hitters and replaced them with homer-happy hackers. They already had Heyward in that category, and now the lineup is very unbalanced that way.

Oh, my goodness. I read the game story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the comments, and wow, those fans are NOT happy campers. I read several demands that the Braves DFA Uggla and B.J. Upton NOW. B.J. (whom they now call “Big Joke”) is six weeks into a five-year deal. Uggla (whom they call “Struggla” or “Ugly”) is in the third year of a five-year extension.

Oh, and it goes without saying that the manager and GM are both imbeciles and should be fired immediately.

Bear in mind that the Braves are still in FIRST place–but admittedly, they haven’t played well this month after their hot April.

Lefty

Jim: Pretty good except maybe Noonan instead of Arias at 3B against the righty starter.

Lefty, yeah I thought about that too. I haven’t seen that much of Noonan at 3B but if he can handle it, that would be a good approach. Either way, might be good to let Pablo just focus on hitting tomorrow night.

walt kovacs

lefty

when have the atl not been hackers?

its what allowed the giants to beat them in the playoffs every time out…even when they had superior pitching

South City Jim

I think Atlanta has a problem. Remember the old commercial about how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop roll? Well, how many professional hitters must a LU have to be effective? Last year, despite they’re hackatude, Atlanta had Bourn, Prado, Chipper and McCann. Now they’re left only with McCann. I consider Heyward to be on the fence. Without table setters or base runners occupying the opposing pitcher’s attention, I think you’ll see their power numbers and run production diminish as the season goes along. Bet they wish they had re-upped Bourn and not signed BJ.

Ryan

Looks good Jim. Arias over Noonan for certain. This is a good chance to get him his reps – AAAA player that he is.

===

CC,

Reading comprehension dear lad. I made note of Burrell’s superior patience. The analogy would be to bat speed and ability to put one in the seats. It’s a tall pull hitter to tall pull hitter analogy; more or less.

===

I’m with A-L.

If the Sandoval fitness regime hasn’t taken hold by now, it probably isn’t happening. He’s relegated to maintenance – staying in reasonable playing shape.

===

Braves fans should chill the eff out. They are still good. Heyward and Venters will help. They need Heyward’s patience at the dish. Venters to lock to down 8th . Uggla and BJ will go on hot streaks and all will be forgotten. Still #5 in this weeks NL Power Rankings.

South City Jim

Ryan, I think Uggla might hit. BJ’s swing is too long and loopy. He needs to get shorter otherwise, I think it’s going to be a long year for him.

Lefty

Walt: Well, Prado and Chipper weren’t really hackers, and they were on the Braves for years–very good OBPs and low K ratios. McCann’s not a hacker, either. Bourn had a lot of strikeouts last year, though–most of his career. Must have been something in the water there in the ATL.

So they already had Freeman and Heyward (good young hitters, but hackers), Uggla, and now they have the Brothers Upton. They’ve gone from a balanced lineup of some patient hitters and some power-hitting free swingers to practically all hackers.

Ironically, it’s the non-hacker, McCann, who hit the only homers against the Giants this weekend.

Reaper

#178. All those guys you mention who could have been AAAA players are still not guys you’d want starting for your team. They are (and should be) bench guys (save for Crawford). It’s hard to justify giving Pill regular ABs, especially in the NL. Maybe you aren’t even suggesting he get regular ABs, I don’t know. But platooning is the wrong move. Casey Stengel might disagree with me, but the Giants are in a fortunate position where they can both compete to win and think above the development of young guys like Belt and Crawford.

kevin56

Please trade Brett Pill. Wherever he plays, (except for DH) he is a significant defensive downgrade, with an “alledged” marginal offensive upgrade (his career OPS and/or speed is NOT better than any player he might replace).

South City Jim

Who knows how 2010 might have turned out had Prado been healthy at 2B instead of Brooks Conrad. To win a WS title, you need to be lucky and good.

The Oracle

Since Pill is here, I expect he will DH in Toronto. I also believe that he will likely have a small window to show something, because his presence makes the roster less flexible. If he does show something, I expect to be driven crazy by Bochy resurrecting his platoon system.

Lefty

Jim: AND Chipper was out AND Billy Wagner got hurt in Game 2–and the Giants won Games 3-4 off the young bullpen.

In 2012, how about Cueto getting injured and the Cards not having Westbrook or Garcia (or the real Chris Carpenter)? Of course, the Giants didn’t have Wilson or Melky and they had a $10 mil. 1B who was not really functional. So I guess it evens out.

Lefty

Why would Pill DH in Toronto? The two starters are righties. And I know Pat Burrell started against righties and lefties. But…(finish the sentence).

South City Jim

Lefty, Good points. Forgot about Wagner.

Samuel

@Ryan #31: It’s one of MadBum’s legendary snot-rockets. Though I can see where the confusion comes from.

Mo P

I thought Pill’s splits in the majors shows that he doesn’t hit lefties all that well…

So DH vs Righties make sense!

Matthew

Chardonnay grapes… Snot rockets…. Separated at birth.

South City Jim

Not even Pat the Bat started against knuckleballers. I recall Bochy one time saying in one of his pregame interviews with Miller “with a knuckleballer going today we’re going to give Burrell a day off.” I don’t see Pill DH’ing tomorrow, but who knows, maybe you tell him to do what Pablo does…close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.

South City Jim

Mo P, you may be right but the two Pill HRs I remember best were against Kershaw and Joe Saunders.

Lefty

Mo IS right. Pill’s splits are reversed. He hit very poorly against lefties and better against righties. However, he had very few ABs against righties–always platooned with Huff and/or Belt–so it’s a small sample size.

Pablo’s quote about facing Dickey cracked me up. My reaction was “So how is that different from any other day/AB/pitcher?”

Lefty

Arghh. I guess I need to come up with another way to mention the Jays’ starting pitcher for tomorrow night. Moderated.

E-B

Lefty, try his first name w/ last name initial only.
(i forgot his first name!)

E-B

folks…

do u think Scutaro becomes DH for tomale?

Bochy’s been looking to give him a rest day, but his bat’s too important in the l/u.

Is Noonan’s D good enough at 2nd? What about Arias at 2B, then to 3B for D replacement if we’re ahead in later innings?

Lefty

Henceforth tomorrow night’s pitcher shall be known as RAD. Here’s my post again.
—————-
Mo IS right. Pill’s splits are reversed. He hit very poorly against lefties and better against righties. However, he had very few ABs against righties–always platooned with Huff and/or Belt–so it’s a small sample size.

Pablo’s quote about facing RAD cracked me up. My reaction was “So how is that different from any other day/AB/pitcher?”

South City Jim

E-B, that’s possible…Scoots DH’s and Noonan plays second. It’s also possible they play straight up with the regulars and Torres DH’s since he’s a switch hitter. Number of options.

E-B

btw, just hadda chime in on yesterday’s game.

so great to see Timmy pitch like Timmy.

also, not sure if it’s just me, but I think we might be seeing some very positive influence of Quiros, who I think is actually the unsung hero in this series.

Quiros called a great game w/ Maddi on the mound, and what I noticed is he didn’t call a ton of 1st pitch FB, and also, didn’t elevate the FB w/ 2 strikes.

As much as we can call ATL hackers, well, they sure can hit FB. It showed in Vogey’s start, where he typically started w/ a FB, although not well located, ATL didn’t miss, and knocked the cover off the ball against vogey.

Credit to Buster for observing how Quiros called the game, to great results. I felt that Buster used a similar approach w/ Timmy–not allotta 1st pitch FB (except in that shaky 1st inning). Lots of junk junk junk, w/ a few FB sprinkled in here/there. Reminded me of Q’s pitch sequences w/ Maddi, which were/seemed very random and well-stirred.

E-B: I think the part I liked best was our lineup jumping on their three best pitchers. And out-homering them–in OUR park!

E-B

Lefty: t o t a l l y !

(esp Huddy, who I really really like, but who’s been a beast vs SFG for many years. I think Scoots and Buster wore him out w/ their constant fouling-off great pitches)

Ryan

arrrrrrgh, Bapah & CC , I need some of your good HPLC mojo.

I’m without pressure now. I told you about the fluctuations before. Well I took it apart to replace seals and frits and now I got nothing.

So I goes across the street to the USDA and hit them up for parts. I get the active inlet valve and try that out. Still nothing. Tomorrow I’m going to come back with the pump head assembly and see if that works.

It’s like I send one part down to AAA and call up another. Hope this one hits.

Ryan

arrrrrrgh, Bapah & CC , I need some of your good HPLC mojo.

I’m without pressure now. I told you about the fluctuations before. Well I took it apart to replace seals and frits and now I got nothing.

So I goes across the street to the USDA and hit them up for parts. I get the active inlet valve and try that out. Still nothing. Tomorrow I’m going to come back with the pump head a$sembly and see if that works.

It’s like I send one part down to AAA and call up another. Hope this one hits.

Ryan

ATL will probably have trouble pushing across single runs – or playing playoff baseball. There’s no small ball in their game. But they should still beat up inferior pitching and run up the win totals.

So he’s overweight…OK…I’m telling you he Will find fitness Jesus next spring…why?? cause it’s the money year…And when the Giants resign him to an extension, fat or not…I’ll be happy to say
“Thank you Jesus!!”

Btw Woj..I sure hope you are all that and a bag of chips after you called out the 4 gals for being “4 female mini whales.”
Seriously???

Let’s see what you look like and let’s let those 4 women take a couple of shots at you..

Ryan

Reaper,

as for the “AAAA” guys, I’m suggesting that every team has them. There’s no such thing as a AAAA guy. Either there’s roster spot where you can help a big league club or you are buried on the depth chart in AAA. Some guys just need a shot. Very few stick in the big leagues and have respectable careers, but there are plenty of examples of guys who do find semi-regular or bench roles.

Come to think of it, Cody Ross just might qualify as a once upon a time AAAA-er.

my two bits worth, has Toronto had a starter make it out of the 3rd or 4th inning lately?

E-B

re: Pablo.

Lefty & Baroness got it right. (women are better GM’s on this board)

here’s the acid test: Take The Bear (Pablo) outta the l/u.
What does it look like (to other teams)?

Now you know Pablo’s true value to this team.

(and just in case you forgot, go back and listen to the DET broadcasters describe our l/u…”Sandoval’s the only real dangerous hitter in that SF l/u.” Good to know how the other side views our Pablo.)

Woj

@Anti-Lasorda says:
May 13th, 2013 at 2:37 pm
The only thing this club needs saving from is a Vogelsong start right now. Belt’s just fine.

If you characterize a .237 light hitting 1B who strikes out a ton and has a huge hole down and in (EVERY team knows the location of this hole so I’m not stating anything any fan of MLB doesn’t already know) as Fine then yes, the only major problem the Giants have is Ryan Vogelsong’s starts. Belt still isn’t hitting enough even to be an average offensive first baseman. He’s improving and young but if he was 30 he’d be shipped out … like James Loney was.

Belt is very good defensively. Good for him – that keeps him as the starter at 1B over Pill for now.

I am glad Brett Pill is going to get this chance. And by getting his chance, heads up Belt fringe – that means an occasion start in place of your man Belt or if Belt wants to play, he can head out to Left Field to gibve Blanco a breather. I believe in rewarding young guys who produce in AA or AAA with promotions to see what they can do. Don’t send Pill anywhere until he gets 80+ ABs and reassess. The last thing I want him to get is the 0fer against Kershaw or some ultra-nasty left hander and everyone says AAAA Pill, cmon.

Woj

Confuscius & I stand by our earlier shared comment. FAR more to Being Giants Gamer Babe than holding lying sign.

FYI – I’ve never attended a Gamer Guy sign directing female attention onto myself. I go to watch the game primarily. Seems childish and If I ever do I’d measure up very favorably vs. those 4 sign holders from yesterday. Go Giants!

Sam

Lefty,

You asked a couple of times why Pill would start as a DH against a RHP. Well the lefties on the bench would be Noonan who is 1 for 13 This month, and Torres just got a start against a RHP and struck out his first 3 AB’s. it’s not like the alternatives are that exciting..

Muttley

Enough on Fat Pablo. The man can hit and is the best pure hitter on the Giants. Let him eat and hit. I remember Ruth was what 6’3 and 300? lbs. Best player ever and he was overweight.

Simply hide some of the Panda’s post game burritos and let him hit!

Lefty

CC: Buerhle pitched 7 innings for them on Saturday (in a win). RAD pitched 6 innings in his last start (no decision for him, loss for the team).

I think we’re supposed to see Brandon Morrow after RAD–but he’s had to scratch the last two times because of back stiffness, so we’ll see.
———-

Re Gamer Babes: They should just retire the whole silly stupid, sexist thing. It was maybe a little funny about three years ago, but I am so OVER it.

Lefty

Speaking of Buerhle, I saw on MLBN that his family didn’t move to Toronto with him after the trade. Why? They have a pit bull, and they’re banned in Toronto. Apparently Mrs. Buerhle loves the dog, so…

It’s not my place to judge anyone’s choices, but seriously? You’re picking the dog over your kids having their dad around?

Matthew

Robert Allan Richardy ( the shortened last name might get moderated)….

Not to be confused with the ever popular Rodney Allan Rippey.

Muttley

@ Sam-

Well said. I’d rather have a guy make contact from the Right hand batter’s box (Pill) then look good whiffing (Torres) and meekly grounding out (Noonan) from the left side.

And with R.A. Dickey tomorrow he doesn’t even know where that nasty knuckleball will spin dart and dip. Stick the guy in there that is most likely to park one in the Rogers center outfield seats (Pill).

Lefty

Sam,

I like the idea of Noonan getting a start and either Pablo or Scutaro DHing. Could be a nice idea to give Scutaro and his aching back a night off from standing on artificial turf.

Noonan needs ABs, too. If you’re not going to play him, why keep him on the roster? Bring up Kieschnick for lefty pop and another outfielder or bring up another relief pitcher.

Pill can DH against the A’s–they have some lefty starters, don’t they?

Ryan

I sure hope I’m wrong about Sandoval and the Kim Ng’s of the blog are right.

I just feel Sandoval is a bit of a ticking time bomb. Waiting for the elbow to start barking again, but that can be cleaned out and the down time would be less than a month. Worried more about the wear and tear on the joints. He does a lot of running with a lot of pounding with each choppy stride.

He’d have greater long term value in the AL as a 1B/DH. But maybe he goes the year without a DL stint, absolutely rakes the whole way and loses a dozen pounds or so. Then gets committed to a lifestyle change in the offseason and prepares to earn a 9 figure deal. Could happen, but he sure looks high risk to me.

He’d be an awesome prospect haul to a farm system needing an injection of upper level talent.

Then again, the A-L plan of moving Belt to pave way for Sandoval at first makes sense.

But what’s it matter, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. It’s 2013 and the Giants are in first place and Sandoval is raking and has steered clear of the DL.

channelclemente

Lefty,

maybe they’ve improved, but up until a week or so ago, Toronto had the worst or next to worst starting staff in baseball.

Lefty

Sandoval and Lincecum present similar conundrums.

Soooo talented. Soooo much there. You think you’ve figured them out, and then Sandoval hits two home runs off the best pitcher in baseball in the World Series. And Lincecum pitches his best game since 2011 against one of the best teams in the NL.

Homegrown. How do you let that kind of talent walk away? And we still need them. The rotation is not like the Cardinals’–lots of young studs, more in AAA. There’s no third baseman to replace Pablo, whether he’s traded or moved to first. But retaining their services will be expensive.

The reason we can’t figure it out is the Giants haven’t figured it out, either.

Lefty

CC: They still do. 29th in team ERA in MLB. Only the Astros are worse. You would think the Giants wouldn’t have much of a problem there. I just hope there’s not a post-Braves letdown like there was a post-Dodgers letdown against the Phillies.

I think they should skip the DH and just let Zito hit!

channelclemente

Lefty,

who did we play before we went to Chicago and Milwaukee? I’d call that a ‘let down’, now we have Toronto and Colorado before we’re home to the Nationals. It might be in the cards.

Did you notice Lincecum pitched the Braves backwards for the most part, by starting most of them out on the soft stuff to try and get count leverage for his split.

Matthew

Lefty, great idea! How macho would it be to strut in to an AL stadium, let your pitchers hit, and kick their posterior.

Thank you very much. See you next time.

BOOM, get it done.

oil can boyd

Pill will get his swings as DH in Toronto and Oakland and against some lefties coming up on the schedule like De La Rosa, Francis, Detweiler and Gonzales. By the end of May, we will know if Pill is a AAAA player or can contribute in MLB.

channelclemente

ocb,

it might take a wee bit longer than that. Just to get an inkling, 100 ABs.

Ryan

Where is the Giants AAAA affiliate located? Tracy??? Kettleman City???

Vegas Giants Fan, can you please include AAAA in the next report for our ravenous eyes? Thanks !

Ryan

CC,

didn’t you say something about knowing something or another about Pill in 2-3 weeks?

What’s Bryan Lahair doing these days?

oil can boyd

cc-I agree, but I’m not sure Pill will get a chance for100 ABs- Gs only play 10 games in AL parks where they need a DH. If Pill starts hitting they can start him in LF v lefties and sit or DFA Torres then bring in Blanco for defense.

Two left handed firstbasemen. First one criticized, second one receives 7 year $41 mil contract

Ryan

If Belt can put it together like Rizzo has the last 500+ PA, then pay the man!

Lefty

And the second one is Anthony Rizzo, not Bryan LaHair. I think the question was WHERE is he, not how does he compare to Belt. I don’t know where LaHair is except “not signing a $41 mil. deal with the Cubs.”

Enough of this nonsense. Good news from the out-of-town scoreboard:

–Braves found their bats in AZ; kicking Miley around
–Rox got their butts kicked by the Cubs in Wrigley
–Dodgers down 4-0 at home already to Jordan Zimmermann and the Nats–should make Beckett even more surly and potty-mouthed.

Good day for the Giants and they didn’t even play!

CC: The Giants swept the Rockies at home before going on the road to Chicago and Milwaukee. They did win 3 out of 4 in Chicago and could have won the fourth (Romo blew a save)–so while they didn’t play great, I don’t think it counts as a “letdown.” Now Milwaukee–that’s a head-scratcher. The Brew Crew is not good.

Lefty

Even more fun: Chris Johnson and Justin Upton have both hit two-run homers in their former home park. J. Upton’s first homer in May.

Heh, heh, heh.

Sam

LaHair is in Japan, making about 5 mil a year.

Sam

My bad. It’s 5.2 mil/2 yrs.

Mooooooooooose

In 1965, Bob Eucker batted .400 against Sandy Koufax with an OPS of 1.104.

Mooooooooooose

Uecker.

Lefty

Hahahaha. Beckett pitched so poorly that the Dodgers pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the third. The pinch-hitter was Luis Cruz, batting .087. Beckett is hitting .125.

Sorry Ryan. Couldn’t get AAAA score. Internet connection to the 8th dimension is often dodgy.

Lefty

Thanks, VGF!

Wow, Hembree is pitching really, really well. How much longer will he be in Fresno? Long enough to avoid Super-2 status?

Panik still over .300 in Richmond–really good. With Scutaro hitting like a lunatic again, one begins to wonder–how long will Panik have to wait to get a job in the major leagues?

ClutchUp

VGF

How’s the ball yard where the 51’s play?

Vegas Giants Fan

Panik has been playing some games at shortstop, including tonight. Don’t know what’s up with that.

Vegas Giants Fan

Clutch,

Ranked 15 out of 16 in PCL. Only Memphis is worse. Bad neighborhood. Sub par facility. Mets signed two year deal. Same as the Blue Jays did. Small locker rooms. City/County had better do some major upgrades or build a new park.

Nothing has been done because Las Vegas was trying real hard to get the A’s here.

I feel that after the Mets contract is up we here in Vegas won’t have baseball.

ClutchUp

Thanks Vegas!

Since the NBA won’t come to Vegas due to (shudder) gambling is there the same line of thought withMilb or an MLB team there?

What about a retractable in say Henderson?

ClutchUp

ChannelClemente woke up from his Ryan Sanberg dream and found:

Joe Panik @ SS
and
Brandon Crawford @ 2B

Wake up CC

Say good night to the Brandi’s.

Ryan

That’s funny Clutch. I don’t know why CC positions Craw at SS.

===

Hembree doing real good. 19 IP, 20 Ks, 5 BBs, 13 Hits, 3 HRs.
I don’t think there’s any reason to worry about Super 2 with relievers. They are on different arbitration scale than starters and position players.

Nice to see Chris Dominguez bangin’.

Josh Osich deserving a promotion from A+. Sub 1 WHIP, over 10K/9.

South City Jim

What a day…D’Backs, Dodgers and Rox all lose.

Vegas Giants Fan

There has been minor league baseball here since 1947. The AAA team has been here since 1983. There is no concern as far as I know about MLB coming here. A land deal to build a sports complex in Henderson just fell thru. The BLM just pulled the plug because of concerns that the developer involved in the deal was planing a bait and switch deal with the land.

There is a plan every year here to build some kind of stadium.(Baseball, Football, Basketball.) They all fall through. The UNLV stadium is about 10 miles from the campus. Most of the parking is a dirt field. Only the Thomas & Mack and the Cox Pavillion are on campus.

Like I said the last time someone asked, if something does not benefit the Casino’s it doesn’t get done. It’s too bad because the city will support a major league sports team. Hockey would do the best here. Wrangler games are well attended.

Gotta go, doctor’s appt. early morning.

Take care all. And thanks for all the kind words.

Go Giants.

ClutchUp

Baseball’s Been BeryBery Good to me…

But ya know what?

Toronto could SWEEP both games and the Jump Net might have to be deployed…

Ya’ll know its true…

RA D1ckey Plus Jet Lag = 5-2 TBJ’s
D1ckey with six hitter.

Game 2. Giants hit 9 atom balls
Go 0 for 8 in RISP
TBJ’s 3 SF 2

Giant fans seen howling at the moon.

Melky 6 for 11. 5 BI’s. 2HR’s.

Pacmans Pool – full of TV’s

Calls of “we need another starter and a LFielder” are bandied about.

And then….

Their plane lands in Denver. KeeRoze hits 2Hr’s and Bum hits for the Cycle.

Gotta Love Baseball … …

Lefty

Romo was a Super Two…

Lefty

The next time anyone’s howling about Sabean not buying the big name free agents, they should think about:

B.J. Upton: hitting .150, left the game after being hit with a pitch (shoulder boo-boo), and the Braves’ fans are HAPPY.

Josh Hamilton: hitting .212, left the game because he felt dizzy (always something with him).

Jose Reyes: slides into 2B like he’s never stolen a base in his life, out for 3 months

Zack Greinke: forgets he’s not playing football…

And I leave you with two more names:

Arod
Pujols

Goodnight all.

allthewayfromfinnertys

re: Lefty

True dat.

Might I add the entirety of the Blue Jays to the list?

Ryan

The best part of waking up is (coffee) in your cup,

and the Giants in first by 2.5.

===

“Romo was a Super Two…”

And we hardly noticed because this salary has been held in check. Next year would be his last arb and he’ll be making 5.5 mil. He’s been awesome as a reliever. Compare that to Hunter Pence who would be in his final arb and is about 14 mil. So when it comes to relievers and Super 2 status, don’t sweat it. Really the only time you should be concerned with Super 2 is if you are a small market club and you think you are dealing with a potential star in the field or an ace on the mound. Get your best talent out there. Even the Twinkies has brushed aside Super 2 concerns this year.

===

Free Agents playing up to or beyond expectations (discounting some injuries)…

Best to get a read on these signings deeper into deals , but BJ Upton looks pretty bad right now. And Josh Hamilton…

…can’t believe I told Sabean to (BOOM!) get that done. Same with BJ. Back to Fake GM training school.

Lefty

Ryan: I meant the biggest, marquee names…and I would say that last year’s signing of Prince Fielder worked out pretty well for the Tigers. But Pujols and Hamilton back to back–and wow, the Angels are really, really bad. The only reason they’re not in last place is, well, the Astros.

I don’t put re-signing one’s own free agents in quite the same category. To me it’s lower risk because it’s a known situation on both sides. Unless the individual just takes the money and slacks off. Not that I’m mentioning any names in particular.

So far the Red Sox have done pretty well with Napoli and Victorino…but the Sox have been tailing off the last week or two, and I think Vic is hurt–so we’ll see.

Ryan

Hmmmm, resigning one’s own free agents… I think the risk is relatively the same. There shouldn’t be too much of gap between in house evaluations and scouting reports. However, I think the difference lies in the chemistry department. The adjustment period to new environment and big expectations must be difficult. For guys that stay put, they’ve already been though part of the adjustment. This has probably helped the likes of Hunter Pence and is why he should stay put.

But it will still be risk to sign Pence to a BJ Upton contract. Just the nature of the beast.

Great reminders of the hazards of the free-agent market, esp. the mega-contracts. Wow this year has been a real multi-car pileup… as someone pointed out last week, the BB25 7-year deal “looks pretty good from heeere.”

VGF – hope Vegas fixes up Cashman Field so you keep MiL bball – visiting there it’s nice to have somewhere to go besides the casinos, and night games are cool(er). Also, mil gracias! for all the MiL updates!!

Hobie Landrith was Johnny Antonelli’s catcher, way back when.

Vamos Gigantes in Toronto! snorkel

Lefty

Different set of risks with Hunter Pence. B.J. Upton has always had the rep of being an underachiever who doesn’t stay focused. Pence, if anything, is an overachiever, and there is nothing wrong with his focus or work ethic.

But sometimes you watch Pence and he looks soooooo bad. And then he hits a ball about 500 feet to the opposite field. And therein lies your risk.

The Oracle

The Giants acquisition of Barry Bonds was the greatest free agent signing in the history of sports. Can anyone come up with a better one?

The two-game series against the reigning World Series champion Giants marks the first interleague games of the season for the Jays, who have typically struggled against the NL. The Jays are 39-51 in interleague play over the last five seasons. . . . Jays left fielder Melky Cabrera — who played 113 games with the Giants last season before he was caught using performance-enhancing drugs and suspended 50 games — will receive his World Series ring from the Giants on Tuesday.

—–

Just caught up on the overnight tsunami of Pill rants and raves. I think ultimately, in the words of Dennis Green, ‘he is what we thought he was’. I don’t expect him to tear it up, but it would be nice to see him on the big club for a while … with a few clutch hits here and there.

Sam

Better than 2011 signing of Miguel Tejada?

Slide Dog

While punching at the snooze button this AM, baseball winning percentages were roaming around the old cranium.

89-90 wins pretty much guarantees a team the playoffs. That’s a 0.550 winning percentage … which as a fraction is 11/20. That means, roughly, the difference between a 0.500 club, nothing special, and a pretty good team is one win a month.

Cue the Costner quote about one flair per week .. but this is one win per MONTH! Makes you think about the combacks back in April. We’ll probably forget them by October but shouldn’t appreciate them any less.

Keep’n It Real

2 things…

1) Having Justin Upton playing angry in Arizona makes my heart warm. I wish him nothing but the best in showing the D-Backs they made a HUGE mistake.

2) I would say the Phillies signing Pete Rose was a better FA acquisition than Barry Bonds. That signing put the Phiilies over the top and they won 1 of 2 World Series appearances. Barry won zero World Series with the Giants.

Ryan

Nice example KIR. A FA signing should always be a missing puzzle piece.

More recent, I think Adrian Beltre has been a great sign for Tejas.

Anti-Lasorda

As much as it pains me to say it because personally I would love to ear-hole him, but the Red Sox signing Schilling and ending the curse of the Bambino should be pretty high on the card as well….

JStreet

Missing puzzle piece? Not Carlos Beltran, who along with having a flair for hitting, also has a flair for being on teams who have NOT advanced to the World Series. Giants figured they’d traded for the missing piece in 2011, not so fast. Then Sir Carlos chooses St. Louis to make his WS push as the pendulum swings, then runs into the juggernaut that was the 2012 SF Giants. No chicken dinner. Most ignominious however was his view from the batters box as strike three flew by him with the bases loaded, game seven, next stop the World Series for the Mets in 2006. Tic toc. Tic toc..

Lefty

KIR: I enjoyed seeing Upton look bad against the Giants this weekend, but I’m with you: I’m rooting for him to stick it to the arrogant “gritty” Dbacks.

He and Chris Johnson, traded to the Braves for Prado & minor leaguers, in last night’s game at Chase Field: 7-9, 2 HR, 2 2B, 5 RBI. Both hitters were a triple short of the cycle.

Prado? Had a costly error last night and is hitting .233.

ClutchUp

Will Melkdown flip his bat around and gently touch Buster on his left shin guard?

Its predominantly a ‘Latin player to Latin catcher’ sort of ritual, but I’m still curious.

Heh
Heh

Ps: What happened to Sonie after 55’s Sunday performance and all the normal adoration and adulation Giants Fans and Media bestowed on Timmeh?

Unstable and fluxuating comments by her ‘Highness”.

(“CU, what in heavens are you talking about”)

ClutchUp

The GREAT TALENT EVALUATOR Sandy Alderson signs Rick Ankiel and he starts in CF for the Mets last night.

How far has their Farm system fallen?

Ankiel: 0/3 2K’s Walk Run

Tigers Austin Jackson 15 day DL

Ryan

Nice call JStreet.

Carlos Beltran was a nice add by the Cardinals: 32 HRs, 97 RBIs last year. And he’s back at it again this year. Not bad for a 36 year old.

How has he done in those postseasons?

151 PAs, .363/.470/.782, 14 HRs, 25 RBIs.

Only thing missing in his game is being a cheerleader and clubhouse leader. Some lead by example. Couldn’t pull the cart all by himself now, could he?

Ryan

Good call on Schilling, A-L. Great players are great players whether you like their personalities or not. See Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb. Wasn’t Ted Williams a bit of a jerk? Known to be lost in his swing while in the outfield.

ClutchUp

That was Ketchup not real blood, the Warren Commission had it checked out.

Real hero?

Dave Roberts stealing off Mariano when the Nation knew he was running…

Anti-Lasorda

Since the Warren Commission wrote one of the worst crime scene analysis in the history; choosing to invent ballastics, and failing to include witness tesetimony that conflicted with the predetermined conclusion of their report, I think I’ll pass on any other future recommenations or evidence they present to additional contradictions.

Anti-Lasorda

Since the Warren Commission wrote one of the worst crime scene analysis in the history; choosing to invent ballastics, and failing to include witness testimony that conflicted with the predetermined conclusion of their report, I think I’ll forego any other future recommenations or evidence they present to additional contradictions.

ClutchUp

Matthew… What gives? (Kidding)

Paris Soccer Celebration Marred….

Racist chanting / ACMilan v. Roma…

Manchester fires Coach Mancini…

Sigh …baseballs my sport…. :-/

Anti-Lasorda

What about Big Papi’s dinger in Game 5? I mean afterall he was ALCS MVP and all….

Ryan

Kuip seemed under the impression that Pill will DH the next 2 ; getting 8-10 PAs. Wonder if his source is accurate.

Word about R.A. is that he is not throwing the knuck with the same velocity. He was throwing and knuckler at 82-83 last year! Or Barry Zito fastball velocity. Can you imagine how a knuckler dances at that velocity – more wind resistance to trigger those swift darts, jigs and jags – jitterbugs.

Go get ’em G’s:

Pagan
Scutaro
Sandoval
Posey
Pence
Belt
Pill
Crawford
Blanco

There’s some menace in that lineup. Dickey better be on his game if he doesn’t want whiplash.

Ryan

Kuip seemed under the impression that Pill will DH the next 2 ; getting 8-10 PAs. Wonder if his source is accurate.

Word about R.A. is that he is not throwing the knuck with the same velocity. He was throwing and knuckler at 82-83 last year! Or Barry Zito fastball velocity. Can you imagine how a knuckler dances at that velocity – more wind resistance to trigger those swift darts, jigs and jags – jitterbugs.

Go get ‘em G’s:

Pagan
Scutaro
Sandoval
Posey
Pence
Belt
Pill
Crawford
Blanco

There’s some menace in that lineup. R.A. better be on his game if he doesn’t want whiplash.

Keep’n It Real

Ryan-

I hate to sound like a broken record about Beltran, but wasn’t his knees “toast” (bone to bone) years ago? He hadn’t had a good year since 2007 and then 5 years later (with those same “toast” knees…which should be even worse), he goes 32HR/97RBIs with the Cards?

He may be a good FA for St. Louis, but this uptick at 35-36 years old has me wondering…

Seems like los Gigantes with good bat control – Scutaro, Posey, Belt and Craws, maybe Pill, will be alright tonight – gotta hope that Pablo and Pence don’t injure themselves swinging at the knuckler. snorkel

Anti-Lasorda

Injury and Vogelsong maybe the only things that keep this group from the playoffs…….

Vogey to turn it around Wednesday? Hope so, but Toronto is a tough place to do it with the ball carrying in their the way it does and the way he’s pitching.

Zito has a tough challenege today. Still a lot of pop in the Jays underperforming lineup and SkyDome performs somewhat like a bandbox.

Very easily could drop both games with bad pitching performances. Hopefully the wood makes good.

~YMMV

Vegas Giants Fan

Headline from today’s Sports Page/ Las Vegas Review Journal.

Locals buy 51’s for $20 million.

Proposed Ballpark to be build in Summerlin for $65 million next to Red Rock Resort. The owners envision a park called The Ballpark at Summerlin Centre, with 8,000-9,000 seats on 16-20 acres to be donated by Howard Hughes Corp., which values the land donation at $40 million.

The new owners want a three-way partnership between the city of Las Vegas, Clark County, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to float bonds to pay for the ballyard, which would be surrounded by a proposed mini-urban village of retail stores and restaurants. The proposed Summerlin ballpark site is in Clark County, a mere 500 yards from the city.

If they can pull this off it would be great for the city and it’s residences. For me and my Dad the ballpark would be a 5 minute drive from my house. Summerlim is considered the best masterplaned community it the United States, and I’m not saying that because that’s where I live. It’s nice and quite up here. Great place for a ballpark.

Like always, we’ll see what happens. Lots of money up here. Could happen.

Go Giants.

Ryan

KIR,

looks likes he had the injury plagued years in 09-10 (2010 being the only sub .850 OPS year).

The twilight of his career he’s in the 850 zone. Scary. Maybe it’s the right treatment protocol that gave him a little cushion. Maybe it is a little something something extra. But the patience and swing are what generate the results.

I think he deserves credit for grinding away on those knees and remaining one of the best hitters of this generation. Sorry if he rubs cohorts of fans the wrong way.

Ryan

A-L,

Vogelsong puts up a benchmark performance. The contagion of stellar pitching spreads to the rest of the rotation. It has been written. It shall be done.

I know I’m projecting a bit, but Panik is a first-rounder who is doing very well in the toughest league for hitters (over .300 BA, nearly .400 OBP) and who seems to be adjusting beautifully to 2B. He’s already played a full season at High A and a short season at Salem-Keizer and in the Arizona Fall League twice. He’s 22 years old, so still young, but…

Does Scutaro block him all the way through 2015? Do they trade Panik? Trade Scutaro? Use Panik in a utility role (like Rich Aurilia for a year or two in the 90s)? Use Scutaro in a utility role?

JStreet

Off topic but worthwhile: on my drive to the chiropractor, I heard a great bit on satellite radio comedy station. Ancient routine by Bob Newhart, depicting a call by Abner Doubleday to a game company (like Parker Bros?), pitching a brand new game called “baseball” that he has just invented, and could they promote it? Executive asks a few questions, humors the man and winds up wondering what kind of nut would think up such a game. Hilarious in that deadpan, understated way of Newhart. See if I can find a link, will post on the next off day..

Been seeing “benchmark” a lot lately – does that mean “turnaround?” or “baseline??”

Great news re the ’51’s VGF – why are they called ’51’s?

Would we assume that Panik makes his way up thru Fresno? What if Noonan continues to stick – would Panik jump over him because he’s a first-round pick? (Snorkel likes Noonan!)

totalfan62

Lefty: that’s a good comparison and career path, Panik compared to Aurilia. It’s good to see another first round pick moving steadily through the system as well. 2014 at Fresno, then 2015 as either regular 2B with Scutaro as all-around utility guy, or vice-versa.

I’m still holding out hope that Gary Brown gets back on track and ascends to MLB by 2015 as well. We became spoiled by rapid development of Lincecum, Bumgarner and Posey. Nothing wrong with four years of MiLB development, even for college juniors such as Brown and Panik.

Vegas Giants Fan

Richmond leads the E.L. in ERA – 3.59

Richmond last in E.L. in WHIP – 1.48

E.L. has 7 teams with ERA under 4.00.

Only one team with WHIP under 1.30

Richmond would be 6th in the Southern League in ERA

4 teams in Southern League with WHIP under 1.30

Only 3 teams in Southern League with WHIP over 1.30.

Richmond would be 6th in Texas League in ERA.

6 of 8 Teams in Texas League with WHIP of 1.30 or better.

Eastern League looks like pitching is way down from previous years.

Go Giants.

Ryan

Hope the doc got you straightened and feelin’ good, J. Maybe gave you what Beltran’s been havin’.

===

Thanks for the link, Lefty.

I think it’s safe to say that no one on the farm is untouchable. So for the right player at the deadline, Panik could be dealt.

But he sure sounds legit, whereas Brown is the ersatz prospect (he’s making a little turnaround though). Panik doesn’t have the highest ceiling, but he has all the trappings of a gamer that knows how to win. He’s a Jeter fan, eh? That fits.

Call him up in September. Get his feet wet. Come wintertime, trade Sandoval and his risky largesse, netting tasty prospects. Move Arias to third. Scutaro helps transition Panik. Panik and Craw up the middle. Scutaro shares third with Arias. Those two hold down third for Duvall, Posey or one of the Panda-Prospects.

(you know the sound) Get that done.

Ryan

Panik & Aurillia both St. John’s Alum. So was Chris Mullin, CJ Carlissimo…

In my mind the 3rd year was Scoots as a Utility Guy for $2M. G’s were at 2 for $18M before agreeing to 3 for $20M.

Next year is the transition year for me. Panik, if he holds course and has a good August in Central California the most aggressive I see the front office plans for him starting in 2014 for about a month to 6 weeks in Fresno and then a callup up by June 1 to spell Scoots. Maybe even start platooning with Scoots by the end of the year depending on how Marco performs and he performs in the utility role. If they platoon Panik being LH hitter would be getting a majority of the ABs.

Of course, that June 1 date gets pushed back the more Scoots hits .300+ and since the new shoes has him looking like playoff Scoots hitting in front of the Panda that maybe a little while.

One interesting idea, since I have been on the Pablo to 1B bandwagon. Could there be room for a Scutaro as the 3B mid next season with Panik at 2B and Panda at 1B if Belt were to be moved or injured? Do you perhaps try Panik at 3B and have him be a Bill Mueller type?

I could see that happening too… but that depends on Belt and Pablo. I wouldn’t be suprised in the least though if while at Fresno they don’t give Joe a few days manning the 3B.

Been seeing “benchmark” a lot lately – does that mean “turnaround?” or “baseline??”

Great news re the ’51′s VGF – why are they called ’51′s?

Would we a$$ume that Panik makes his way up thru Fresno? What if Noonan continues to stick – would Panik jump over him because he’s a first-round pick? (Snorkel likes Noonan!)

Ryan

I’d be surprise by Panik at third A-L. I think they are going into groom mode for one position. One who play SS if needed.

And there you go again, trading or injuring Brandon Belt. What was that movie with Sylvester Stallone where the POWs play soccer against the Germans and they break a guys bone so that Stallone can play goalie ?

Was that dream or a real flick?

Anyways A-L, for me, if there’s a choice between Sandoval or Belt at first, provided Belt can hit .800 OPS, his defense at first and baserunning would tip the scales.

But there probably isn’t a choice. It just wouldn’t be the Giants way to borrow from the pages of Billy Beane and replenish the farm. That’s just too savvy for them.

Total, thank you. That is it. now I remember it, the button down mind. As Carson liked to say, “Good schtuff”

AL, thank you too. Equally funny routine, and really the same gag, different day. Love Newhart. Try one called I think ‘King Kong’.

Ryan, thanks, Chiro says I’m in better condition than I was. Glad she let me know, feeling better already. Dunno if Beltran’s remedy would help me at this late date..
If I was a team, I’d be reluctant to sign him just because of the close calls with WS infamy. Close but no stogies.. Just kidding. It’s the knees I’d balk at.

Ryan

Paul,

Think Mulder and Scully.

and maybe think Ford or Chevy engineers on the assembly line, whichever you prefer and YMMV.

Ryan

Paul,

Think Mulder and Scully.

and maybe think Ford or Chevy engineers on the as$embly line, whichever you prefer and YMMV.